Divya Deshmukh barged into the top 15 of the world as the August 2025 ratings list was released by FIDE, the global governing body of chess. Her rating also swelled by 15 points to go to 2478 after her barnstorming campaign at the FIDE Women’s World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, where she won the title despite entering the tournament as the 15th-best ranked player. Thanks to winning the World Cup, arguably the most treacherous tournament to win in women’s chess, Divya also became a grandmaster, India’s 88th. She is also only the fourth woman from the country to get clinch highest title on offer in the sport.
Winning the FIDE Women’s World Cup also helped her secure a spot in the FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament, where eight players will battle for the right to challenge the reigning women’s world champion Ju Wenjun in the next Women’s World Championship.
With 2535 rating points, Koneru Humpy, who Divya defeated in the final of the World Cup in a thrilling tiebreak, remains the top-ranked Indian in the world in the women’s rankings list. Humpy has, however, gone down one spot to no 6 in a ranking list dominated by the Chinese. The veteran Harika Dronavalli, who lost to Divya in the quarterfinal of the FIDE World Cup, was ranked 12th in the world among women, ahead of Divya.
There are five women from China occupying the top 5 spots in the FIDE ratings list for women: Hou Yifan (world no 1 at 2607), Ju Wenjun (No 2 with 2570), Lei Tingjie (No 3 with 2565), Tan Zhongyi (No 4 with 2539) and Zhu Jiner (No 5 with 2536).
Meanwhile in the open ratings list, there are three Indians among the world’s no 6, led by Praggnanandhaa at world no 4 with a rating of 2779. World champion Gukesh is no 5 while Arjun Erigaisi is no 6. Both players have the same points, 2776.
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