D Gukesh, Divya Deshmukh strike gold as Indians shine in European Chess Club Cup 2025

Reigning world champion D Gukesh was among the players winning individual gold alongside compatriots Divya Deshmukh and Nihal Sarin as Indians shone bright at the European Club Cup 2025 in Rhodes, Greece.

Gukesh was part of the SuperChess team that won the ‘Open’ section with a perfect score of 14/14, and won gold on Board 1 with a performance rating of 2927, ahead of Vincent Keymer and Anish Giri with Arjun Erigaisi, the current Indian No 1, finishing fifth in this list. What made Gukesh’s gold even more impressive was the fact that he ended up topping Board 1 despite skipping the first two rounds in the 40th edition of the tournament.

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The 19-year-old Indian chess star has been under immense pressure after his underwhelming performances at the Sinquefield Cup as well as the FIDE Grand Swiss last month, but his clinical performance in Rhodes should give him some confidence ahead of the FIDE World Cup.

Sarin, meanwhile won gold in Board 3 ahead of Alexey Sarana and compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram while Abhimanyu Puranik won gold on Board 7. Among the other Indians in action in the ‘Open’ section’, GMs Vidit Gujrathi and Harikrishna Pentala finished sixth on Board 2 and 3 respectively.

Divya lone Indian to win gold among women

Divya, who had recently won the Women’s World Cup to qualify for next year’s Candidates, was the only Indian winning individual gold in the 29th edition of the Women’s tournament. Representing Cercle d’échecs de Monte-Carlo, she topped Board 2 with a performance rating of 2591. International Master Vantika Agrawal, representing Tajfun SK Ljubljana, finished seventh in Board 4 with a performance rating of 2267.

While SuperChess won the ‘Open’ title after defeating Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub in the final round, Alkaloid claimed the runners-up spot for the second year running while defending champions Novy Bor finished third.

And in the ‘Women’ section, Cercle d’échecs de Monte-Carlo won the title with a score of 13/14, ahead of Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica which took the runners-up position with 10/14. ‘Open’ winners SuperChess finished third in the ‘Women’ section with a score of 9.