Young Indian teenage sensation Divya Deshmukh took the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025 final clash against compatriot Koneru Humpy into the tiebreaks after playing two draws in both the Classical games. The first game, where Divya had white pieces, was a topsy-turvy game where the 19-year-old from Nagpur created a lot of chances for herself but failed to close in the game, resulting in a draw. Divya said she was disappointed with her game but did not let the game bother her for long.
“I was quite disappointed with the first game, obviously, because I saw everything and I just always ended up making the wrong choice, and it was quite a pity. The first game did not go my way, and even though it was a draw, it kind of felt like a loss. So I was just trying to recover, and today was considerably easier. I think I got myself into a mess for no reason. It should have been an easy draw. I got into trouble for no reason,” said Divya to FIDE’s official broadcaster after the final headed towards a tiebreak.
Why was 🇮🇳 Divya Deshmukh smiling? @DivyaDeshmukh05
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On being asked whether she was able to move on from a draw that could have gone her way in the first leg, she said, “It’s absolutely necessary to do that (move on), otherwise you’re not going to perform well in the next game. I just tell myself that I have the rest of my life to be sad about it. So just don’t be sad today, and then we can be sad about it afterwards.”
Divya called Humpy a really strong player but she vowed to give her best in the tiebreaks which will be played in the shorter time controls.
“I’m going to give my best. She’s, of course, a really strong player, but I’m hoping things go my way.”
The teenager was seen smiling during the first leg and when asked about the instance, she said: “I was getting spammed on my phone after the game because everybody was like, “Why is she smiling?” I got so annoyed… I deleted all the apps. I didn’t realise, first of all, that I was smiling. I think it must have been some inner joke that I thought of, I think I was just so into calculations, and at that point I was honestly a bit frustrated because I saw queen E2, and my problem was bishop C6. I saw queen C4 and I thought of queen D7 here, but I didn’t realise D5, and I mis-evaluated it.”
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