NAGPUR: 21 days of heroic play with back-to-back international titles on the way to becoming world girls junior chess champion made 18-year-old Divya Deshmukh the youngest in the list of the top 20 female players in the world currently.

With a live rating of 2464 Elo, Nagpur’s International Master (IM) took a giant leap to become number one in the world. 20 in the live women’s ratings. After winning the Sharjah Challengers chess title last month, Divya was India’s number one. 4 and the world’s 24th ranked female player for the World Junior Chess Championship with an Elo of 2456.

In the 11-round World Juniors in Gujarat, Divya posted a top finish by winning the tournament undefeated by 10 points. Divya’s first World Juniors win helped her earn a total of eight international rating points, moving her up four places and into the world’s top 20 for the first time in her career.

At 18, Divya is now the youngest in the elite field of top 20 players, and only the second U-20 player on the list. The only other U-20 player on the list is 20-year-old Assaubayeva Bibisara from Kazakhstan.

Experienced grandmaster Koneru Humpy with a rating of 2530 tops the rankings of Indian players at the seventh position. Humpy is followed by Harika Dronavalli (2489.2) and Vaishali Rameshbabu (2488.4) at 12th and 14th positions respectively.

Among junior girls, Divya’s live rating helped her climb the ranks and become the second highest rated girl in the U-20 category.

Divya will next represent India at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest.