Indian teenager Divya Deshmukh pulled off a remarkable victory at the FIDE Grand Swiss, defeating Egyptian grandmaster Bassem Amin in style. This was Divya’s first win of the tournament, and what makes it even more special is that Bassem came into the match with a hefty 158-point rating advantage.
Divya Deshmukh, who only recently became a grandmaster two months ago after winning the FIDE Women’s World Cup, showed her grit on the big stage. On the other side of the board was Bassem, Africa’s top-rated player, a medical doctor, and someone who had crossed the elite 2700+ rating mark in the past.
A Rocky Start for Divya
Things didn’t look great early on. From the 10th move, Bassem started to gain the upper hand, and by the 16th move, he had a solid advantage. Ranked world no. 94, the Egyptian is far ahead of 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh, who sits at 761st in the global rankings. That’s a gap of 666 places between the two.
“I completely forgot my prep today. The opening was just bad,” Divya admitted to ChessBase after the game. Coming into this round, she had drawn two games and lost one, so a win was much-needed.
Fighting Back Against the Odds
In her chat with FIDE later, Divya recalled: “The opening was quite a rough start for me. I’m happy that I managed to recover. He put so much pressure on me! Of course, he’s the best in Africa and he’s quite strong, so it was a tough game.”
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Despite the shaky opening, Divya managed to hang in with some resourceful play. And then, she flipped the script. By the time the game reached the 47th move, she had launched a crushing attack that forced Bassem to resign.
The highlight? A bold rook sacrifice on move 33, when she played 33… Rxg4. That move cleared out the defender on the h-file and opened the floodgates against Bassem’s king.
“I loved that move!” Divya Deshmukh said with a smile afterwards.
A Relentless Attack
What followed was pure fireworks. Even after giving up her rook, Divya’s pieces came alive. The queen, rook, and bishop swarmed around Bassem’s king, leaving him with no way out. By move 43, a checkmate was only a matter of time. When the resignation came, Divya was two pawns and a rook ahead, showing just how powerful her attack had been.
It was a statement win, the kind of game that announced her arrival on the big stage.
A Good Day for Women in the Open Section
Interestingly, the other woman playing in the open section, Aleksandra Goryachkina, also won her game against Dmitrij Kollars. “It’s a good day for women in the open section,” Divya Deshmukh remarked with pride.
For her, this victory was more than just a point on the scoreboard. “The victory was a relief for me, I was wondering when a win would come! I’m glad that it came today! The first game at the event (versus Abhimanyu Puranik, who helped her win the FIDE Women’s World Cup in July as a second) was tough, but I learnt a lot. It also helped me. I just had to calculate so much in the first game! I think that training helped me in the other ones,” Divya Deshmukh added.
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