New Delhi, July 28: Abundantly talented but more significantly, incredibly cool in crunch situations, that’s how India’s 88th Grandmaster and World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh was described by her formative coach Srinath Narayanan, who feels the 19-year-old chess wizard’s composure is comparable only to cricket great MS Dhoni.
Divya became a part of the growing list of young achievers in Indian chess by clinching the FIDE Women’s World Cup title in Batumi, Georgia, defeating Koneru Humpy. The all-indian final was a testament to India’s growth and the fact that it stretched till the tie-breaker was a tribute to the depth of talent that the country has produced.
The 38-year-old Humpy is one of the most accomplished and compact players who has been the flag-bearer of Indian women’s chess for more than two decades. She has won countless titles, including two World Rapid Championships, two Asian Games gold medals and has also been a part of the Chess Olympiad gold-winning team.
Divya winning against her was a glorious moment for Indian chess.
“She’s quite an aggressive player. But with time, Divya has become more all-round, more versatile. I think she’s equally good across all the different formats… Classical, Rapid and Blitz,” Srinath said.
“And her strength is, I think, turning up in those big moments, crunch situations. Like how Mahendra Singh Dhoni used to win the matches in the last over.
“I saw something similar in Divya in those last-round situations or situations where everything was hanging in the high-pressure moments. She used to perform incredibly well under pressure in important matches.”
Srinath, who coached the Nagpur teenager till 2020, says he understood that she was talented as early as in 2018. He also feels that she has the ability to become a world champion, having qualified for the Candidates Tournament.
Divya’s career graph so far has shown that she is driven and likes to take the challenge head on.
A three-time gold medallist at the Olympiad, Divya has also won multiple gold medals at the Asian Championship, the World Junior Championship as well as the World Youth Championship.
However, coming into the women’s World Cup and beating some of the biggest names in the business needed more than just luck, and here’s where her talent came to the fore.
Srinath says he found Divya “incredibly talented” during their first meeting at the airport in 2016, when the team was leaving for Turkey to play in the World U-16 Olympiad. (PTI)
