Maharashtra governor felicitates Divya Deshmukh on winning FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup title

NAGPUR(Maharashtra):Maharashtra governor CP Radhakrishnan on Sunday felicitated Divya Deshmukh at Raj Bhavan, who won the FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup final and also became India’s 88th Grandmaster.

Earlier on Saturday, Chief Justice of India BR Gavai also felicitated the 19-year-old young Indian chess player.

Expressing her views on meeting with the Chief Justice of India, Divya Deshmukh told reporters, “I am really happy and honoured that the Chief Justice of India came to our house and I got to know that we have family relations. He made me feel very welcome and congratulated me.”

Divya became the first Indian woman to clinch the Chess World Cup after overwhelming Koneru on Monday evening in the final via tiebreaks. She became just the fourth Indian woman grandmaster and overall the 88th in the nation to clinch that title.

During the tense contest, a string of inaccuracies in the second rapid game contributed to Koneru’s downfall. She found herself a pawn down in the rook endgame, which played out in Divya’s favour. The veteran allowed the situation to sink in and resigned on the 75th move and fell short in a gripping final with a score of 2.5-1.5.

Divya failed to capitalise on the two windows that Koneru left open for her with her inaccurate moves. However, on the third time, Koneru inflicted more damage on herself by capturing the f pawn on move 69, which changed the tide in Divya’s favour towards the final moments of the contest. This time around, Divya made no mistake, played the right moves and forced Koneru to resign after six moves.

Her eyes welled up with tears as she began to grasp the scale of her victory. She tried to compose herself, but soon became overwhelmed with emotions again after embracing her mother in a heartfelt moment. (ANI)