Syllabus:
GS I Prelims: Current events of national and international importance.
Context:
Recently, Divya Deshmukh created history by becoming the first-ever Indian woman to win the FIDE Women’s World Cup final.
More on the News
• Divya Deshmukh is India’s latest Grandmaster, only the fourth Indian woman to get that most coveted of titles in chess. Other three Indian women are Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and R. Vaishali.
• She defeated her counterpart veteran Koneru Humpy in the tie-breaker.
• No player from the country had previously progressed beyond the quarterfinals in this prestigious event, with Harika Dronavalli’s 2023 quarterfinal finish being the previous best performance.
• Divya also qualifies for the 2026 Candidates Tournament and received the World Cup gold medal along with $50,000 in prize money.
About the FIDE Women’s World Cup
• The 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup took place from July 6th to July 28th in Georgia and brought together the world’s best female chess players.
• A total of 107 players from 46 different federations participated in the event, including seventeen of the current top twenty.
About Grand Master in Chess
• Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can earn. It is given by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
• There are other titles in chess like International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FM), and Candidate Master (CM), along with titles for women such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and Woman International Master (WIM).
• To earn the Grandmaster (GM) title, a player must meet specific performance standards in tournaments.
• Normally, the player must compete in tournaments with at least nine games. However, some events allow shorter formats—like seven games in World or Continental Team Championships and eight games in the World Cup or Women’s World Championship.
• To get a “GM norm” (a key step toward the title), the player must play at a very high level with a performance rating of at least 2600.
• The tournament must have a strong lineup, where at least one-third of the opponents are already Grandmasters and players from at least three different countries must take part.
• Some events are specially designed to help players meet these requirements.
• To finally earn the GM title, a player must achieve three such norms across at least 27 games and also reach a FIDE rating of 2500 at any point.
International Chess Federation (FIDE)
• FIDE is the governing body of the sport of chess and it regulates all international chess competitions.
• It was constituted as a non-governmental institution, and it was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a Global Sporting Organization in 1999.
• Headquarters: FIDE currently has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland but it was initially founded in 1924 in Paris.
• Motto: The motto is “Gens una Sumus” (Latin for “We are one Family”).
• It was one of the very first International Sports Federations, alongside the governing bodies of the sports of Football, Cricket, Swimming and Auto Racing.
• It is now one of the largest, encompassing 201 countries as affiliate members, in the form of National Chess Federations.