As India gears up to host the FIDE World Cup in Goa, the spotlight will be on the top Indian players such as D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa to win the crown that Magnus Carlsen holds.
Among these names and their potential for a historic title run, it’s easy to miss the significance of Divya Deshmukh in the draw. The 19-year-old – who stunned the chess world in July by winning the FIDE Women’s World Cup – is the only female participant among the 206 and was given a wildcard to enter.
Why is the reigning Women’s World Cup champion competing in the FIDE World Cup with a wildcard entry? She has already won a World Cup this year, why, and how, can she play another?
First the how; chess as a sport is officially divided into the Open and Women’s category, which means that the FIDE World Cup is not limited to men alone. While it’s true that not many women participate in the Open category, it is also not uncommon and the opening is available. Remember the iconic image for Indian chess from September, when world champion Gukesh Dommaraju was held to a draw by Women’s World Cup winner Divya after a marathon at the Grand Swiss?
This year, both World Cups are not being held together as it was back in 2021 and 2023, giving Divya the opportunity to play both events in one year.
Secondly, Divya has already achieved the best she can this year in women’s chess; winning the World Cup when she was not even a Grandmaster and thereby qualifying for the Women’s Candidates – the eight-player competition which determines the challenger to the world champion.
This allows her the freedom to compete in Open events with the top male players if she wants. This means she can play in different competitive environments and sharpen her game further. While there is not necessarily a skill difference among the genders in chess, the Open section generally has higher-rated players and that can be uniquely challenging.
“I think it’s a good choice that she’s taking part in the men’s circuit to get that exposure and to also learn few techniques as well,” Koneru Humpy, Indian women’s chess’ pioneer and the losing finalist of the World Cup final Divya won, told ESPN.
“I’ve said several times that it is always important for young women to compete against men. That will really help them improve their game. If you play with lower standard players, you decrease your strengths. If you compete with stronger players, gradually your mind will start thinking at the best possible level and you start improvising.”
This is not to say that the women’s field is less competitive; it’s just a different environment with players you see on a more regular basis, players who Divya has beaten at the World Cup and will play at the Candidates. “Of course, for any player, whether you play with women or men, you are always competitive, you always want to win and prove your superiority,” Humpy adds.
But to do this at the start of her career will give Divya an edge in competitive scenarios. The teenager is a very newly minted Grandmaster, reaching there not by obtaining the usual norms but by virtue of her World Cup title. She became India’s 88th GM, but only the fourth Indian woman to achieve this, which is indicative of the gulf in Indian chess. Her Classical rating currently is 2498, which puts her in close range of that 2500 mark needed for GMs, but that’s not very high in the Open category.
She therefore needed a wildcard from chess’ international governing body, which she got only after Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun and women’s World No 1 Hou Yifan declined the invitation and “there was no female representation in the event”. It was not a given she would play just because it’s a home World Cup, but things fell in place to put her on this stage.
“…due to the last-minute dropout of the qualified player, FIDE President got to assign one more wildcard – and it goes to the reigning Women’s World Cup Champion,” said FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky.
Divya Deshmukh gets the wild-card for the FIDE World Cup in Goa.
After Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan declined an invite, there was no female representation in the event. However, due to the last-minute dropout of the qualified player, FIDE President got to assign one more wild card -…
– Emilchess (@EmilSutovsky) September 22, 2025
It was the last line of his statement, though, that underlines the nuance of her participation. “Judging by her performance in Grand Swiss, Divya will be a force to reckon with even if she faces 2600+ opponent in Round 1.”
At the Grand Swiss in September, Divya competed in the Open section and, pardon the sporting cliche, gave a good account of herself in a very competitive field. She scored 5 points in 11 rounds and while on paper, her finishing 81st out of 116 doesn’t look the best, this was actually a great result for the teenager. She was by far the lowest rated player at the tournament and beat a couple of players rated over 2600, and most notably held Gukesh to a draw after a marathon game that lasted six hours and 103 moves.
There is every chance that Divya may not be able to repeat such a feat at the World Cup or indeed progress to the business end of the eight-round, single-elimination knockout tournament.
She will start her campaign against Greek GM Stamatis Kourkoulos Arditis, who was rated 2583 when the match pairings were announced. Incidentally, she has beaten him before, in the final round of the Prague Challengers earlier this year. Should she win, she will be in an all-Indian clash against GM Nihal Sarin in round two. She is coming off a good run, winning the gold at the the European Club Cup, in Rhodes (Greece) on the second board while her team Cercle d’echecs de Monte Carlo became champions.
But Divya’s participation in Goa is not about the results in an Open event. It’s about the teenager going out of her comfort zone after winning her biggest career title in an unexpected manner. Indian chess is in its golden age currently, with the quiet courage of youth shining through at the biggest stage and Divya playing the World Cup embodies this spirit. Irrespective of Divya’s results in Goa, playing the World Cup will give her valuable experience at what is still a very young stage in her career to hone her skillset in one of the toughest environment with a home tournament spotlight added.
The significance of Women’s World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh playing the FIDE World Cup is not about success, but the pursuit of excellence.
