India, Dec. 31 -- Divya Deshmukh, the 19-year-old International Master from Nagpur, etched her name into chess history by defeating compatriot Grandmaster Humpy Koneru 1.5-0.5 in the tiebreaks to win the Women's World Cup final. She followed in the footsteps of Grandmaster (GM) Alexandra Kosteniuk (2021) and GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2023) as the third winner of this prestigious title. With this triumph, Deshmukh not only secured the Rs.42 lakh first prize, but also automatically earned the GM title-the highest title in chess. In doing so, she became one of the very few players in history to achieve it by winning a major FIDE event rather than collecting the usual three GM norms and 2,500 rating.
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