India's chess prowess on the global stage was again exemplified by 18-year old Divya Deshmukh winning the prestigious FIDE World Junior Chess Championship title recently held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. In a dominating performance, the Nagpur based talent steamrolled the competition, finishing at the top of the standings without experiencing even a single defeat across her 11 round matches.
Despite entering as the pre-tournament favourite due to her impressive live ratings, Divya revealed she did not place pressure on herself to win and instead focused solely on playing quality chess in each game. This approach seemed to work wonders as she grabbed the summit position after round 6 and never relinquished her grasp on gold thereafter. Armenia's WIM Mariam Mkrtchyan made a valiant attempt to catch Divya until the final round but ultimately fell short by half a point. Ayan Allahverdiyeva of Azerbaijan came third overall.
Thanks to her world junior triumph, 18-year old Divya's ratings saw a massive leap as she broke into the top 20 of the current women's rankings. However, she still considers achieving the grandmaster title as a immediate target while keeping her long-term career options open for now. Among the various challenges faced during the championship, Divya singled out her encounter against Ayan as being particularly testing with early trouble that she had to dig herself out of to eventually win.
While transporting the large and ornamental trophy back home posed some logistical difficulties, Divya expressed her elation at bringing yet another world title to India through her chess mastery. She will hope to continue enthralling fans and opponents alike with her skills on the 64 squares in the years to come.
