Divya Deshmukh

Divya Deshmukh (born 9 December 2005) is an Indian chess player who holds the title of International Master (IM). In June 2024, she won the FIDE World Junior Girls Chess Championship.

Early life and education
Divya was born in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Her parents, Jitendra Deshmukh and Namratha Deshmukh, are doctors. She completed her Class 12 board examinations.

Chess career
Divya became India's 21st woman chess Grandmaster in 2021. She won the 2022 Women's Indian Chess Championship. She also won an individual bronze medal at the 2022 Chess Olympiad. She was also part of the gold medal-winning FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 team. As of September 2023, she is the 7th ranked woman chess player in India.

In 2023, in Almaty she won the Asian Women's Chess Championship. She then finished first in the women's rapid section of the Tata Steel India Chess Tournament, despite being the bottom seed. At the tournament, she defeated Harika Dronavalli, Vantika Agrawal, Koneru Humpy, Savitha Shri B, Irina Krush, and Nino Batsiashvili, drew against Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and Anna Ushenina, and suffered her only loss to Polina Shuvalova.

On 13 June 24, she became 2024 FIDE World U20 Girls Chess Champion. She became the fourth Indian to win a World Junior Girls title after Koneru Humpy in 2001, Dronavalli Harika in 2008, Soumya Swaminathan in 2009. Needing a win in the final round, she defeated Bulgaria’s third seed Krasteva Beloslava in a five-hour marathon battle to secure 10 points out of a possible 11 and won the championship.