Divya Deshmukh defeats Koneru Humpy to become Fide Women's World Cup champion

Dubai: Divya Deshmukh defeated Koneru Humpy in the second 15-minute rapid tie-breaker to win the all-Indian Fide Women's Chess World Cup final.

Humpy, 38, played the first tie-breaker match with black pieces against Divya with the game ending in a draw after 81 moves.

The win meant the 19-yearold became the fourth Indian woman to earn the title of Grandmaster. Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and R Vaishali are the others.

On Monday, after the first Rapid tie-break game was drawn, Divya took advantage of a late error by her 38-year-old compatriot to be crowned victor. The mistake came in her 54th move and Humpy’s young opponent did not let go of the opportunity.

Both Divya and Humpy by reaching the final had already qualified for the Candidates tournament, whose winner will challenge the reigning women’s world champion, China’s Ju Wenjun.

Shaking hands with Humpy, Divya turned emotional, shedding tears of joy as her family joined in the celebration.

“I think it was fate, me getting the grandmaster title this way,” an emotional Divya said right after her win. “Before the tournament, I didn’t even have one norm. I was thinking that I could maybe earn a grandmaster norm here. And at the end, I became a grandmaster,” she added.