Of the 115 players fate could have handpicked to play Divya Deshmukh in the first round of the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, she drew arguably the one she would have least like to face in Samarkand – Abhimanyu Puranik, a man who helped her become the FIDE Women’s World Cup champion two months ago.
The field in Uzbekistan includes Indian chess’ golden generation of world champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi, who won the last edition of the tournament in 2023. There is also a strong veteran contingent featuring Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hans Moke Niemann and Anish Giri.
Instead, Divya drew a player who, as her second at tournaments, knows a thing or two about her weaknesses and how to capitalise on them. Puranik also knows her battle plans, probably having drawn up some of them himself.
The FIDE Grand Swiss tournament — an 11-round event with no elimination — has as many as 18 Indians.
India’s Divya Deshmukh emotional after reaching FIDE Women’s World Cup final. (FIDE/Anna Shtourman)
But all eyes will be on Divya, who, having secured a Women’s Candidates spot by winning the World Cup in July, made the bold decision to play in the open section rather than in the Women’s Grand Swiss. Only one player in the 116-player field at Grand Swiss is rated lower than Divya (rating of 2478 at the time of the field being finalised). Had she chosen to play in the Women’s Grand Swiss, she would have been the 8th-highest rated player in the 56-player field, not to mention one of the firm title favorites, thanks to her recent World Cup triumph.
“I truly enjoy playing in open tournaments,” Divya had told The Indian Express after becoming the Women’s World Cup winner. “As much as they are difficult, it’s a must-have experience and it makes you much stronger when you play against people who are way stronger than you to begin with. You learn so much about yourself at such events: like where you’re lacking, where your weaknesses are and how you can improve on those.”
It must be noted that besides Divya, Aleksandra Goryachkina too has opted to play in the Grand Swiss rather than the Women’s Grand Swiss. But it remains rare for a female player to compete in the open section at such a prestigious event.
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The Grand Swiss, in fact, is the third time in 2025 that Divya will battle in a mixed tournament. In the previous two events — the Tata Steel Challengers at Wijk aan Zee and Prague Challengers — she experienced many defeats. She lost eight out of 13 games in the Netherlands and had five defeats from nine games at the latter event.
Divya Deshmukh contemplates her next move at the Chess Olympiad. (PHOTO: FIDE/Michal Walusza)
Despite those losses, Divya speaks positively about the experience of playing in a mixed field.
“These tournaments, all the struggles I went through and getting beaten left to right, has definitely helped me to become what I am,” she had said in another interview before adding: “Playing in these events, I realised that there’s a lot less pressure on me. I enjoy those tournaments more.”
Besides, both events saw Divya, then only an International Master, defeat grandmasters. At Wijk (where there were three other women in the mixed Challengers field, including R Vaishali) Divya beat a Turkish GM Ediz Gurel, who was rated 2624 at the time while Deshmukh was at 2490. Then in Prague, where she was the only woman in the 10-player field, she beat Grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis.
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The Grand Swiss, which started in 2019 and offers two spots in the Candidates tournament in either section, has been known to be a happy playground for underdogs. Last time, it was Vidit and Vaishali who walked away with the titles. In the inaugural event in 2019, China’s Wang Hao had stunned a player of Fabiano Caruana’s class to win the title. Two years later, a young Alireza Firouzja had fired the first warning shots that he was going to be a force to be reckoned with by winning the title in Riga.
Samarkand may be Divya’s moment.
FIRST ROUND PAIRINGS FOR INDIANS
Grand Swiss: Gukesh (black pieces) vs Bacrot Etienne, Praggnanandhaa R (black) vs Xiong Jeffery, Arjun Erigaisi (white) Chigaev Maksim, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (white) vs Donchenko Alexander, Harikrishna Pentala (white) vs Anton Demchenko, Nihal Sarin (white) vs Rasmus Svane, Aryan Chopra (white) vs Parham Maghsoodloo, Leon Luke Mendonca (white) vs Andrey Esipenko, Murali Karthikeyan (black) vs Aydin Suleymanli, Pranav V (black) vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Raunak Sadhwani (white) vs Jules Moussard, Narayanan SL (white) vs Alexander Grischuk, Aditya Mittal (black) vs Rauf Mamedov
Women’s Grand Swiss: Harika Dronavalli (black) vs Marsel Efroimski, Vaishali Rameshbabu (white) vs Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and Vantika Agrawal (black) vs Yuliia Osmak.
