Divya Deshmukh. 19 years of age. International Master, (although it won’t be long before she becomes a Grandmaster.) And now a FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup finalist. In her first appearance at a World Cup, after a gruelling semifinal against the third seed Tan Zhongyi of China, who played the World Championship match just a few months ago, the Indian teenager scripted a fantastic run to the final.
On Wednesday, Divya continued her giant-killing spree at the World Cup with another accomplished performance to take out a former world champion after having previously beaten second seed Zhu Jiner and her higher-ranked compatriot Harika Dronavalli.
A year on from an individual and team gold medal at the FIDE Olympiad, Divya’s path to the World Cup final is yet another feather in what has already been a decorated young career so far. With this result, she has already qualified for next year’s Candidates tournament, giving her a chance to fight for the World Championship.
In the third edition of the Women’s World Cup, Divya, the 15th seed at this tournament, is now its youngest finalist – a year younger than Nurgyul Salimova was when she made the final of the previous edition in 2023. Divya also joins Salimova as the only International Masters to have made the Women’s World Cup final.
For someone so young, her performance in decisive moments of this competition has shown a maturity simply beyond her years. She hasn’t been overawed at any point in such a difficult competition.
���� 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh advances to the Finals of the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025!
❗️She earns a GM norm and secures her spot at the next Women’s Candidates!#FIDEWorldCup @DivyaDeshmukh05 pic.twitter.com/GlTBHTPdxN
– International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 23, 2025
Divya and Zhongyi had played out a quick draw in game 1 of the semifinal, which was a decent enough result for the Indian, as she was playing with the black pieces.
In this second game, Zhongyi might have fancied her chances after the opening, with no clear advantage for Divya, who also found herself in time trouble in the middle game. Zhongyi even had an advantage according to the engine, around move 30. However, a series of three inaccurate moves between moves 32 and 35 left the Chinese player in trouble.
Then, between moves 57 and 61, they exchanged inaccuracy after inaccuracy, but the young Indian came out of that little skirmish with a sizeable advantage, according to the engine. However, Divya let Zhongyi off the hook with an inaccuracy on move 79, which brought the game to an almost dead level position.
Against a player of Zhongyi’s calibre, with Divya’s relative inexperience, that would’ve been the exact point of the match where she would’ve been forgiven for not having enough left in the tank to keep pushing.
But this group of young Indians at the top of both men’s and women’s chess don’t really know what it’s like to stop pushing. And so Divya kept prodding, even though her opponent had a sizeable advantage on the clock.
As she willed it, there was one more blunder left in the game, and it came from Zhongyi on move 90, and from there on, Divya didn’t look back. It was just the stroke of luck that her perseverance and her level throughout the entire tournament deserved.
For Zhongyi, who lost the World Championship match to Ju Wenjun earlier this year, this is now a third consecutive loss in the semifinal of the World Cup. She finished third and fourth respectively in the first two editions of the competition.
It’s a win that Divya didn’t look back too proudly on in the aftermath. Speaking on FIDE’s official broadcast, she said she could’ve played much better, that she should have had a much smoother path to victory in this game.
At the end of the day, no one will remember how she won. What they’ll remember is this 19-year-old giant-killer in Batumi. They’ll remember her as a finalist, at the very least. She awaits Lei Tingjie or Koneru Humpy, who play their tie-breakers on Thursday.
A women’s Chess World Cup final with two Indians? Imagine that!
