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Journalism of Courage
After an impressive show at the recently concluded FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, playing at the Open Section against male players, Indian chess star Divya Deshmukh has been given another wildcard, this time for the upcoming FIDE World Cup 2025 that is set to be played in Goa from 30th October to 27th November later this year.
Divya won the historic FIDE Women’s World Cup, defeating veteran compatriot Koneru Humpy in the summit clash that also helped her seal a Women’s Candidates spot. The triumph made her the 88th GM of India and only the fourth Indian female after Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and R. Vaishali to earn the Grandmaster title.
Having competed amongst the male players in the Open category in the Grand Swiss, Divya impressed with a score of 5.0/11 in an extremely tough field. She was placed above the likes of Karthikeyan Murali, Boris Gelfand, Levon Aronian and Alexander Grischuk. She finished on par with Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina, the other female in the Grand Swiss who was given a wild card in the Open category.
Both FIDE and their CEO Emil Sutovsky confirmed the development, as Sutovsky said the wildcards were first offered to reigning World Champion Ju Wenjun and World No. 1 Hou Yifan, both of whom declined the invitation and then a drop out from a qualified player led to the wildcard being passed on to Divya.
“Divya Deshmukh gets the wild-card for the FIDE World Cup in Goa. After Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan declined an invite, there was no female representation in the event. However, due to the last-minute dropout of the qualified player, FIDE President got to assign one more wild card – and it goes to the reigning Women’s World Cup Champion. Judging by her performance in Grand Swiss, Divya will be a force to reckon with even if she faces 2600+ opponent in Round 1,” wrote Sutovsky on X.
“GM Divya Deshmukh, the reigning FIDE Women’s World Cup winner, has been awarded a wild card for the FIDE World Cup 2025 in Goa by the FIDE President. This follows a last-minute cancellation of one of the participants, with Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan having earlier declined the invitation. The young Indian star recently competed at the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, and now she will fight for glory on her home soil in Goa, India,” said FIDE.
Earlier, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich also granted the official invitations for the World Cup which went to the youngest GM in history, USA’s Abhimanyu Mishra, this year’s Junior Closed US Champion Andy Woodward, World Rapid Champion Volodar Murzin, Kirill Alekseenko and the “Messi of Chess”, 11-year-old Argentinian Faustino Oro.
