 "'This result has been long time coming for Divya': Viswanathan Anand applauds Divya Deshmukh's historic win for India")
Teenage chess sensation Divya Deshmukh edged legendary Grandmaster Koneru Humpy in the tie-breaker of the all-India finale to clinch the FIDE Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, on Monday. With the victory, Deshmukh has etched her name in history as the first World Cup winner from India. At 19, she is the youngest to achieve the feat.
Additionally, Divya has become eligible to be bestowed with the coveted title of Grandmaster. The sound of her victory is making reverberations in the chess community. This sentiment was echoed when 5-time chess world champion and the greatest ambassador of Indian chess, Viswanathan Anand, joined Rupha Ramani on Firstsports and shared his thoughts on Divya’s achievement.
Viswanathan Anand acknowledges Divya Deshmukh’s achievement
Talking about the clash between Humpy and Divya in the final and the eventual victory of Deshmukh, Vishy expressed that he was looking forward to witnessing which generation would triumph. He praised the composure shown by Divya to play error-free chess, but also held veteran Humpy in high regard.
“It’s fantastic. And in fact, there was no suspense going into today because we knew an Indian was going to be the World Cup winner. But for me, the real suspense was which generation is going to do it? Humpy has really been carrying the torch for a long time. And then we have Divya, who’s so young, first chance to win the World Cup. And the nice thing for both of them is that they were playing exclusively for this.
“They both already qualified for Candidates. And Divya once again showed that calm composure under pressure,” Anand said.
Anand also mentioned that success was long overdue for Divya following India’s Olympiad victory, but a form dip prolonged her march to glory. Nevertheless, she eventually got there.
“You could, in fact, you could see it more in Humpy’s part at some point, and that’s just the nerves of the title and the stakes that are up for grabs. But Divya managed to play relatively error-free, kept control, and showed a lot of maturity, and I think that bodes very well for her.
“Also, I think this result has been a long time coming for Divya. She’s generally been seen as a very talented player with a lot of potential. But somehow after Olympiad, the follow-up didn’t really happen, but now it’s happened in full here, and this is all of it in one goal,” he added.
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