In 11-year-old Divya Deshmukh, India has another chess prodigy breaking through the ranks

Divya Deshmukh cannot stop fidgeting in her chair and needs to be prodded by her mother a couple of times to concentrate and respond.

“She isn’t this way. She does get up once in a while and roam around but is completely focused otherwise [while playing],” is the explanation Namrata Deshmukh offered while the 11-year-old continued to find ways to get out of the awkward situation of answering questions about herself.

Divya recently bagged the gold in the World Cadet Chess Championship (U-12) Brazil, the only medal India managed to win at the prestigious meet this year. She has the distinction of finishing on the podium consecutively for four years – winning two gold medals and two bronze.

The grade six student of Bhavans Vidya Mandir in Nagpur doesn’t probably get the point of talking so much about her achievements and her game. Instead, her eyes actually lit up when she start talking about how she and the other members of the team knocked on random doors in a hotel during a tournament abroad, the pranks she plays on her parents and elder sister, or how she went to see PV Sindhu in action at the senior national badminton championship last week despite her exams.

Reluctant starter

By her mother’s own admission, Divya was a reluctant starter and used to hide in the house when it was time for chess coaching or sit idle for hours staring at the chess board till the game grew on her. “We had enrolled her elder sister for a badminton class and since the chess class was in the same place, we decided to send her there,” said Namrata Deshmukh.

“I think the only thing we as parents did right was to be diligent about taking her there and let her enjoy herself. It was when she played a tournament seven months later and won that she began taking interest,” she added.

Divya, who comes from a family of doctors, was not even five then and though she now trains for over six hours, became the youngest Women Fide Master in 2013 and has four national titles and multiple international medals to show for her effort.

But the focus is still on enjoying the game rather than setting targets and goals.

“I don’t know, may be an IM title in next three years,” is how Divya herself responds to a query about what’s the next target for her.

Her mother is more elaborate. “Her father has some broad plans. But we don’t have specific time elements for achieving any goals. Also, we don’t discuss most of it with her as we don’t want her to be burdened by it. When she goes to the tournament she has the pressure that she has to win but otherwise we let her enjoy.”

While they let Divya enjoy, the mother (Namrata) has wound up her practice as a gynaecologist to travel with the daughter for coaching and tournaments in India while her father Jitender balances between his patients in the Government hospital and the daughter’s travel plans.

Divya currently travels to Chennai to train under Grandmaster RB Ramesh at his Chess Gurukul almost once a month and then works on her own at home according to the sessions and work given by the coach when not travelling for tournaments.

“She is an extremely talented and hard working girl,” is how Ramesh describes Divya before pointing out that the parents have taken the best possible approach for her career by not concentrating on the race for titles and norms.

“When the child is hardworking and is ambitious then the parents should be happy to sit back and ensure that the child is not burnt out. I think Divya’s parents are doing the right thing and the results are showing for them,” he added.

A simple tale, narrated by her mother, shows Divya’s extremely competitive nature.

“We started sending her for badminton practice a few months back just to increase her stamina and fitness. But within three days, she began speaking about how she wanted to beat a player who was more experienced and playing for a longer time. We had no choice but to stop her playing since it would be too demanding on her,” Namrata said.

Divya doesn’t mind the challenge but has understood that chess takes enough toll of her and she can’t afford to put more pressure on her by challenging herself to take up another sport. For now, she is happy challenging herself with chess puzzles and finding new ideas to play pranks on her family members.