India’s 19-year-old International Master Divya Deshmukh on Monday (July 28) defeated compatriot Koneru Humpy won the Women’s World Cup in Batumi (Georgia).

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.

Win after 2 draws

The victory for the Nagpur player came after the two classical games played on Saturday and Sunday ended in draws.

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Having drawn the two classical games, it was the first set of tiebreakers that proved decisive as Humpy lost her nerves. 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.

Divya showed steely resolve on Monday, and the bonus for the determination was the Grandmaster title, reserved for the champion of this event.

88th GM

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.

Divya is now the fourth Indian woman player to achieve the GM feat after Humpy, Dronavalli Harika and R Vaishali.

Humpy, 38, became a Grandmaster in 2002 and Divya was only born in 2005. 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.

Out of a Petroff defence, Divya got an isolated Queen pawn middle game and sacrificed a pawn to give Humpy better prospects in the opening tiebreaker. 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.

The position, however, remained close to being equal and Humpy drew quite easily in the end.

Humpy loses her cool

In the return game, Humpy employed the Catalan opening and again Divya was well prepared as she equalised without much ado. Humpy had sacrificed a pawn early but the ensuing queen-and-rook endgame was just a draw.

It was on the 40th move that Humpy lost her cool and tried to invade the opposition through a pawn sacrifice. Divya could have done better but the rook-and-pawns endgame she reached was still a draw.

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.

The fortunes in this game fluctuated between a draw and a win for Divya for a long time, till the Nagpur girl prevailed.