Divya Deshmukh becomes India’s 21st Woman Grand Master

Fifteen-year-old Divya Deshmukh became India’s 21st Woman Grand Master (WGM) after achieving her 2nd International Master (IM) at Grand Master (GM) in Budapest, Hungary. Deshmukh scored five points in the nine rounds and ended up with a performance rating of 2452 to secure her final WGM norm.

Divya also secured her second IM-norm and is now a norm away from becoming an International Master. Apart from three wins, she played out four draws while losing two games in the tournament.

Who Is Divya Deshmukh?

In 2020, the chess prodigy had won in India’s U-16 girls’ category. The victory placed Deshmukh at the first position in the under 16 girls’ chess in India and on the fifth spot in the world ranking. She got 2,322 international rating points. She is also the first ranking player in the under 18 age group and holds the fifth rank in under 20 categories of chess in India.