India’s newly crowned queen over 64 squares eyes bigger conquests

Divya Deshmukh — National senior women’s chess champion at just 16 and multiple-time world champion in age-group events — wants to claim the sport’s top prizes over the course of her career. With the right financial support, she could have a shot at taking her game to the next level

While covering the World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen at Chennai’s Hyatt Regency in late 2013, this correspondent paid a visit to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. It was the final day of the National Under-9 championship, in which more than 300 kids were taking part.

One met the girls’ champion first. She said her name was Divya Deshmukh and that she was from Nagpur. When asked about the boys’ championship, she said: “A boy from Kerala, called Nihal Sarin, is the champion.”

The name sounded quite un-Kerala-like. But one soon found out Nihal was from Kerala after all, from Thrissur in fact. Nihal has since gone on to become one of the most exciting young talents in world chess. He is ranked No. 7 in the world among juniors and 97 among men.

Divya has been quietly making a name, as well.

She is ranked 19th among junior girls and has been the world champion in age-group tournaments. She was also part of the gold medal-winning Indian team — Nihal was a teammate — at the Online Chess Olympiad.

At Bhubaneswar last month, she became the National senior women’s champion. At 16, she is the fourth-youngest to win the tournament in its 48-year history.

Not many expected Divya to triumph at Bhubaneswar, where she was seeded only eighth. Once she stunned top seed R. Vaishali in the penultimate round — it was her seventh win in a row, which is a remarkable feat in such tournaments — she was almost certain to be the champion.