Divya Deshmukh, a 11-year old Indian Chess player from Nagpur, created history as she secured gold in the U12 World Cadet Chess championship held in Brazil on Thursday.
Deshmukh’s feat is even more commendable considering that she was the only one among the 19 Indian participants to have won a medal. She also remained unbeaten throughout the 11 rounds as she ended with 9.5 points in the girls’ category, winning eight and drawing three games. She finished one point clear of USA’s Nastassja A Matus.
The next best finish by an Indian player in the girls section was an eighth place by Rakshitta Ravi. In the boys section, Rohith Krishna S could only manage a 11th place finish.
Read | Project Checkmate: A special initiative for India’s young chess ‘Grandmasters’
Prior to the tournament, the 11-year-old had a great run. She had won gold in the blitz section, silver in rapid and bronze in the classic version in the Asian Youth Championship in Uzbekistan while she won the gold in the Commonwealth tournament in New Delhi in 2016.
Deshmukh’s feat already adds to her list of magnificent achievements. In 2014, she won her first world title when she became the girls champion in the under-10 World Youth Chess Championship in Durban, South Africa. Earlier, Deshmukh had secured the U-10 Asian blitz event in early 2014 but her crowning moment was winning the rapid and standard formats in the Asian Schools Championship in 2012. In 2013, she had become the youngest woman FIDE master.