{"id":2390,"date":"2025-09-08T10:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/2390\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:25:12","slug":"historic-chess-victory-how-divya-deshmukh-beat-higher-ranked-africa-no-1-bassem-amin-at-fide-grand-swiss-chess-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/2390\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic chess victory! How Divya Deshmukh beat higher-ranked Africa No. 1 Bassem Amin at FIDE Grand Swiss | Chess News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HistoricDivya Deshmukh, rated 2478, stunned Africa No. 1 GM Bassem Amin, rated 2636, with the black pieces (Image credit: FIDE) NEW DELHI: \u201cWith great power comes great responsibility\u201d \u2014 Uncle Ben\u2019s wisdom from Spider-Man feels apt when looking at Divya Deshmukh these days. Barely out of her teens, the Nagpur-born has already checked off Olympiad golds, the World Junior Girls\u2019 crown, Asian championship glory, and, most recently, the prestigious Women\u2019s World Cup.Riding that wave, Divya took the bold call to skip the Women\u2019s Grand Swiss, choosing instead to test herself in the open section against the world\u2019s elite.But the start was far from smooth. A first-round loss to her mentor, GM Abhimanyu Puranik, followed by two hard-fought draws, raised whispers of whether the young shoulders are capable enough to carry the burden of “great responsibility”. The 19-year-old, though, had the calm answer to those whispers: \u201cEven if I lose all the rounds, I think I will be fine if I learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abhimanyu Puranik Exclusive: Chess Journey, Helping Divya Deshmukh in World Cup, Grand Swiss, & More<\/p>\n

On Sunday, she had more than just learning.Divya, rated 2478, stunned Africa No. 1 GM Bassem Amin, rated 2636, with the black pieces, registering her maiden win in the open section and becoming the Player of the Day at the Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

Divya Deshmukh vs Bassem Amin (Divya with the black pieces)<\/p>\n

Facing Amin\u2019s king\u2019s pawn opening, Divya responded with the Sicilian Defence, steering the battle into the sharp Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack territory. The Egyptian pressed early, but as the game wore on, the momentum began shifting.\"Bassem<\/p>\n

Bassem Amin vs Divya Deshmukh (Credit: ChessBase)<\/p>\n

In her post-game chat, Divya admitted the opening wasn\u2019t smooth sailing: \u201cI feel quite good. I think the opening was quite a rough start for me, so I\u2019m happy that I managed to recover. Of course, he put so much pressure on me. He\u2019s the best in Africa, and he\u2019s quite strong. So it was quite a tough game.\u201d\"BoardThe turning point arrived when Amin opted for the aggressive 24. Ng5.Divya recalled the moment vividly: \u201cAfter a rough start, I think this is the moment where I got my chances. If he played Bg7, it would still be sort of equal. But after Ng5, I felt more in control because I saw this idea with f4. Engine does not like it, but it felt like I could put pressure. Also, his bishop on c2 was weak, and I wanted to go Qg6 with ideas on the kingside.\u201d\"DivyaAfter the sequence 27.Bf6 Qg6 28.Bxg7+ Qxg7, the balance shifted. Divya described it with trademark candour: \u201cI think after this point, I started gaining a bit of the initiative, since all my pieces are fine. This knight (on b7), it\u2019s so ugly, but it\u2019s doing its job.\u201d \"TheDivya admitted she wasn\u2019t flawless in conversion: \u201cI was trying to capture all the pawns and just get my knight into activity. And I missed Rc3 and this counterplay. But I think, okay, definitely could have been a much more accurate game, but with our time ticking down, I think it was fine. And I\u2019m proud of this move (33…Rxg4).\u201dThat rook sacrifice on the kingside proved decisive, tilting the game firmly in her favour.\"TheThe bold exchange sac forced Amin onto the back foot. With his king under fire and counterplay limited, Divya calmly converted: \u201cWe were both playing on seconds, so it was quite tough. But I\u2019m just glad that I managed to find the victory. After this (39…Qg5), I realised I just had to play a solid move and it would be okay. There were also a lot of threats in the air, like Rf5, h5, Bh5, so I think it was simply gone for him.\u201d\"After<\/p>\n

Relief after first win at Grand Swiss 2025<\/p>\n

\u201cThe win is quite a relief, honestly, because I was wondering when my first victory would come,\u201d Divya admitted.\u201cThe first game was tough, but I definitely learned a lot. I think it also helped me in my other games because I just had to calculate so much in the first game. That training helped me today.\u201dAsked about the secret to her run of breakthroughs, she commented, \u201cTough to pinpoint one, but my year started off quite rocky. I think in an overall trajectory, failure is the reason for success.\u201d From a \u201crocky\u201d campaign in the Challengers section of Wijk aan Zee to clinching her first win in the open section of the Grand Swiss, Divya has indeed come a long way. But her rise is anything but sudden.\u201cShe just has that instinct. And I feel her play has become much more refined. Her weaknesses aren\u2019t as visible as before, and she\u2019s clearly putting in the work,\u201d Puranik, who was one of Divya’s seconds during the title-winning FIDE Women’s World Cup, told TimesofIndia.com.\u201cI don\u2019t think it was about any specific preparation after the Wijk aan Zee event. It was more of an incremental build-up; she kept working consistently, and then the results showed. It might have looked like a sudden change, but she had been putting in the effort all along. Mentally, I think she was in the perfect space during the World Cup. As a sportsperson, when you feel that rhythm, it all clicks, the balance between skill and mindset. She truly found that balance, and everything came together beautifully. It was amazing to witness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Divya Deshmukh, rated 2478, stunned Africa No. 1 GM Bassem Amin, rated 2636, with the black pieces (Image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3317,109,3319,3314,3322,3321,3316,3315,3318,85,3320,46,105],"class_list":["post-2390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bassem-amin","tag-chess","tag-chess-news","tag-divya-deshmukh","tag-divya-deshmukh-chess","tag-divya-deshmukh-result","tag-fide","tag-fide-grand-swiss","tag-grand-swiss-2025","tag-il","tag-indian-chess","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}