Divya Deshmukh, the newly crowned Women’s Chess World Cup champion, had shown promise of a winner even when she was barely 12, her former coach Srinath Narayanan said on Monday.
“I saw her first during the Under-15 Chess Olympiad in 2018. Arjun (Erigaisi) was also in the squad. I was the coach of the team. Even then, she had that unique quality of turning up at the right time,” grandmaster Srinath, who was the captain of the men’s team that won the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September last year, told The Telegraph from Chennai on Monday.
Srinath had coached Divya for a brief period in 2020. “We worked on quite a few aspects of her game. I must say her game improved by leaps and bounds from 2022,” Srinath added.
Before Srinath, Divya worked with RB Ramesh, who has also groomed Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and his sister Vaishali. Divya has never gone public with who her coach is, even though in 2018, she mentioned Ramesh.
“That’s her personal decision to keep it secret. It does not matter,” Pravin Thipsay, the first Indian to earn a grandmaster norm and third GM after Viswanathan Anand and Dibyendu Barua, said from Mumbai.
Pravin’s wife and chess player Bhagyashree was supposed to travel with the Indian women’s squad to Georgia as the coach, but had taken ill just before the tournament started.
Divya is India’s 88th grandmaster and the fourth woman to earn the title. In 2019 July-August, India had 64 grandmasters, and in the next five years the country added 24 more. Last year was a lull with only Shyaam Nikhil Ponnusamy adding his name to the list.
“Chess is becoming more pan-India now as the game is followed in every corner of the country. In earlier days, there used to be three to four players from Tamil Nadu in the India squad. Now it’s not the case. Divya’s ascent proves that,” he said.
Agreed Barua, Bengal’s first grandmaster and the current vice-president of the All India Chess Federation.
“The momentum has gathered pace in the last few years with the arrival of the youngsters. They are fearless, play fast and are not bothered about setbacks,” Barua said.
“If this continues, very soon we will be as strong as Russia used to be 35-40 years back. I am bullish on India’s complete domination. (Dommaruju) Gukesh was 18 when he won the World Championship last year, Divya is just 19. In the next World Championship, we may see another Indian coming from the Candidates to challenge Gukesh,” he added.
Thipsay finds a distinct similarity with the Chess World Cup in Baku in August 2023 when Praggu went on to reach the final before losing to Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
For the first time, two Indians earned Candidates berths from where Gukesh won the tournament to challenge Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren in the World Championship match in December last year.
This year, in the Women’s Chess World Cup in Batumi, it was an all-India affair with Koneru Humpy and Diya battling for the top spot, and both earning a Candidates berth.
“Previously, it used to be only Anand at the Candidates. In 2023, the trend was bucked by Gukesh and Praggu. And Gukesh reached the top by winning the world title. Now, Humpy and Divya will also be in the women’s Candidates. And my observation is that Divya may win that tournament and then go on to become a world champion like Gukesh. She is brave and thinks very fast. Her quick decision-making skill makes Divya all the more dangerous,” Thipsay said about the girl from Nagpur.
“Yes, she is a future world champion,” concurred Srinath.
“Divya has the mettle of a winner. It’s a matter of time before she wins the World Championship,” was Barua’s prediction.
