Credit: Google
Divya Deshmukh, 19, who is India’s newest grandmaster, managed to stun Egyptian counterpart Amin Bassem, ranked 666 spots ahead of her during the fourth round in the open category of the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament. The Indian chess sensation, who is ranked 761st among active players in the sport, outplayed Amin Bassem in the Sicilian game, to register her first win of the tournament just a couple of months after becoming the grandmaster.
After losing in the first round of the FIDE Grand Swiss to fellow Indian GM Abhimanyu Puranik, who is also her mentor, Divya Deshmukh drew her next couple of games, to find herself in a difficult situation on the standings. During her battle against Amin Bassem in the fourth round, she was in a tough spot in the early stages in the Sicilian Defense before some errors from Africa’s No.1 brought her firmly back into the contest.
The opening was quite a rough start for me. I’m happy that I managed to recover: Divya Deshmukh
On the 33rd move of the game, Divya Deshmukh sacrificed her rook to gain complete advantage before Amin Bassem resigned when the latter was a rook and two pawns down on the board. In her post-game comments, the Nagpur-born chess player was quoted as saying to ChessBase, “I completely forgot my prep today. The opening was just bad,” following which she also talked about how the game turned around for her.
“The opening was quite a rough start for me. I’m happy that I managed to recover. He put so much pressure on me! Of course, he’s the best in Africa and he’s quite strong, so it was a tough game,” she added. Moreover, Divya Deshmukh is playing in the Open category of the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament after managing to secure a spot in the Candidates tournament due to the FIDE World Cup victory recently.
