The little girl was wearing a pink frock and a pinker overcoat. “Divya Deshmukh,” she stated when one requested her what her identify was, on that November afternoon at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai.
The 12 months was 2013. She had simply received the National Under-9 ladies’ chess championship, which was held as certainly one of the side-events of the World championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen at Hyatt Regency.
How time flies!
Divya is now certainly one of the most fun younger abilities in worldwide ladies’s chess. The newest proof got here on Monday, at Batumi in Georgia, the place she grew to become the first Indian lady to win the chess World Cup.
In an all-Indian closing, she defeated the way more skilled, higher-rated Koneru Humpy. After each the classical video games had been drawn, the title needed to be determined in tiebreaker video games, performed with shorter time controls.
The first recreation was drawn in 81 strikes. Divya had white items, and he or she ensured half-a-point by means of perpetual checks along with her queen.
The second recreation, during which Divya was black, was wilder, with each gamers making vital errors. On the forty second transfer, an unwise pawn-push down the centre by Humpy had given the youthful lady a transparent benefit.
But Divya returned the praise only a transfer later, going for a pawn-exchange, as a substitute of which she ought to have performed her rook on the again rank. And now it regarded the level in the second recreation too can be shared, in an equal rook-and-pawn ending.
On the 54th transfer, nevertheless, Humpy went for a pawn-capture along with her rook, and black acquired the benefit again But, Divya didn’t capitalise but once more.
Humpy’s 69th transfer, along with her pawn on the king-side, proved deadly, although. This time, Divya, made no mistake.
When black’s further pawn reached the penultimate rank, threatening to show right into a queen, Humpy prolonged her hand, and conceded defeat.
It was a big second for Indian chess. Here was the undisputed queen congratulating the princess who could someday become the queen.
Divya’s proper hand went in the direction of her face, and there can be tears of pleasure. She, nevertheless, pressured a smile as FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich got here as much as her and congratulated her.
A bit of later, all her pent-up tears got here out, as did her mom’s. Namrata had sacrificed her profession as a gynaecologist for the sake of her daughter’s profession.
It hasn’t been simple for the household, with Divya not having a sponsor, and chess, opposite to widespread notion, is an costly sport, as it’s essential to journey round the world and high quality coaches don’t come low-cost. The prize-money from the World Cup ought to come in useful: she has become richer by $50,000.
That isn’t the solely factor that ought to make her smile. By successful the World Cup, she grew to become India’s 88th Grandmaster, and solely the fourth lady from the nation to take action.
She, together with Humpy, additionally certified for the Candidates event. This was very a lot a World Cup to recollect for India’s ladies.
