new delhi: The legendary Susan Polgar has attributed Divya Deshmukh’s stunning World Cup title triumph to her unyielding will to succeed and mental toughness after the youngster created another significant moment for Indian chess.
In an all-Indian final, the 19-year-old Divya humbled the much more experienced and higher-rated Koneru Humpy in tiebreakers in Batumi, Georgia on Monday.
Divya thus qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament and became the 88th Grandmaster of India after having entered the competition as a dark horse.
“First of all, congratulations to Divya for this historic feat. Well done. Secondly, even though she may not be the pre-tournament favourite to win this World Cup, or the strongest, but she had what others did not, the will to win and mental toughness,” Susan said.
The 56-year-old Hungarian-American Grandmaster added, “There were games where she (Divya) was in trouble, and there were games she failed to convert. But none of it mattered. She continued to fight hard with no fear! Her strong nerves carried her through the finish line.”
The Maharashtra girl’s triumph also made her only the fourth Indian female GM after Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and R. Vaishali, and the 44th woman GM in the world.
Susan, who was the women’s world chess champion from 1996 to 1999, acknowledged that Indian chess is riding a wave of success and saw a bright future for the sport in the country with legends like Viswanathan Anand guiding the new generation of players.
“When Gukesh became a Grandmaster at 12, he was not the highest rated among the top Indian prospects,” she said. “But I immediately picked him to go the furthest. Some (people) thought I was crazy to make such a prediction. But as a coach who trained and worked with over 50 GMs, including a number around 2700 and way above, I saw the incredible intangible qualities in him. Same with Divya. Even though she is not the highest rated female player in India, she also has the intangible qualities.”
Susan termed this as a “golden age” for Indian chess with huge talent pool and qualified mentors. “What is even more special is they are all homegrown and they respect each other,” she said.