INDIA, JUL 28 : Teenaged Indian chess player Divya Deshmukh earned the biggest success of her career by clinching the FIDE Women’s World Cup with a tie-break win over compatriot and more experienced Koneru Humpy here on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The victory not just earned the 19-year-old the prestigious title, but also made her a Grandmaster, something which looked improbable when she started the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The victory for the Nagpur player came after the two classical games played on Saturday and Sunday ended in draws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having drawn the two classical games, it was the first set of tiebreakers that proved decisive as Humpy lost her nerves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except the World Cup and the Women’s World Championship, Humpy has won everything under the sun but, as fate or nerves would have it, the World Cup title eluded her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Divya showed steely resolve on Monday, and the bonus for the determination was the Grandmaster title, reserved for the champion of this event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the record, Divya became the 88th Grandmaster of the country and if she continues to remain resolute in her endeavour she has the ability to achieve great success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Divya is now the fourth Indian woman player to achieve the GM feat after Humpy, Dronavalli Harika and R Vaishali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humpy, 38, became a Grandmaster in 2002 and Divya was only born in 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Divya was a bundle of energy as she kept piling pressure on Humpy in the opening tiebreaker, tiring out her illustrious opponent and then going for the kill in the second tiebreaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Out of a Petroff defense, Divya got an isolated Queen pawn middle game and sacrificed a pawn to give Humpy better prospects in the opening tiebeaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Humpy returned the favour with her clock ticking away, and soon enough she was staring at a position where she had a rook, bishop and a pawn against Divya’s Queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The position, however, remained close to being equal and Humpy drew quite easily in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the return game, Humpy employed the Catalan opening and again Divya was well prepared as she equalised without much ado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humpy had sacrificed a pawn early but the ensuing queen-and-rook endgame was just a draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was on the 40th move that Humpy lost her cool and tried to invade the opposition through a pawn sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Divya could have done better but the rook-and-pawns endgame she reached was still a draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was Divya’s day as Humpy again ran a bit short of time and blundered in the endgame again, leading to a theoretically won position for Divya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fortunes in this game fluctuated between a draw and a win for Divya for a long time, till the Nagpur girl prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-PTI<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INDIA, JUL 28 : Teenaged Indian chess player Divya Deshmukh earned the biggest success of her career by clinching the FIDE Women’s World Cup with a tie-break win over compatriot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[348,16],"tags":[1192,63,27410],"class_list":["post-140058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-sport-news","tag-india","tag-new-delhi","tag-teenaged-indian-chess-player-divya-deshmukh"],"yoast_head":"\n