India’s Divya Deshmukh was crowned the girls U-20 World Chess Champion on Thursday. The 18-year-old from Nagpur beat Bulgaria’s Beloslava Krasteva in the final round of the competition to walk away with the title.
The top seeded Deshmukh finished unbeaten in the tournament as she finished with 10 points in 11 rounds. She won nine of her games, while drawing the other two.
An International Master, Deshmukh started her campaign with three successive wins over fellow Indians Anupama Sreekumar, Sherali Pattnaik, and G Tejaswini in the first three rounds.
She was then held to a draw by Switzerland’s Hryzlova Sofiia before beating Azerbaijan’s Abdinova Narmin and Ayan Allahverdiyeva in the next two rounds.
Deshmukh then finished off the tournament with a four-match winning streak, beating Mariam Mkrtchyan, Norman Kseniya, Rakshitta Ravi, Sachi Jain, and Krasteva in the final four rounds.
The second and third spot in the girls section was occupied by Mkrtchyan and Allahverdiyeva respectively.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s International Master Nogerbek Kazybek won the Junior Open section with 8.5 points out of 11 rounds ahead of Grand Masters Emin Ohayan (8.5) and Luka Budisavljevic.
Pranav Anand was the best performing Indian in the open section, finishing tenth with 7.5 points in 11 rounds.
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