Chess Olympiad: Divya Deshmukh delivers ego-bruising coup de grace as Indian women’s team beat Switzerland

One of the most ego-bruising ways to lose a chess game has to be when your king gets checkmated by a lowly pawn. That’s exactly the kind of coup de grace Divya Deshmukh delivered to her hapless opponent, women’s international master Sofiia Hryzlova (rated 2188), to hand India a 1-0 lead over Switzerland in the third round of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. This is the third win for Divya in the Chess Olympiad, and the 18-year-old from Nagpur is shaping up to be a great bet for India on the third board, behind Harika Dronavalli and R Vaishali.

The Indian women’s team, which is the top seeded team at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, went on to defeat the Swiss team 3-1 to bag both the game points on offer in the third round. Soon after Divya’s victory, Vaishali (facing women’s grandmaster Ghazal Hakimifard) and Vantika Agrawal (taking on Mariia Manko) claimed wins as well to soften the blow of India’s top board player, Harika, losing to grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Divya Deshmukh (playing with black pieces) and her opponent Hryzlova were on equal terms for the first 16 moves in their match. But with two ill-advised inaccuracies with her light-squared bishop, Hryzlova — on the 17th move and the 22nd move — handed the Indian a sizeable advantage.

By the 24th move, birds of prey were circling over Hryzlova’s king. It had taken to hiding behind the thinnest foliage — a single pawn — on the back rank, with two knights and a bishop advancing on him.

INTERACTIVE: How Divya Deshmukh beat Sofiia Hryzlova at the Chess Olympiad

Hryzlova’s light-squared bishop had one more inaccuracy left within him.

That was when Hryzlova’s fate was decided. Divya gave her opponent’s king checks with three of her four following moves before finally ending the game with a deft checkmate on the 32nd move. Hryzlova’s king was on the e2 square, with Divya’s knight, bishop and rook sealing off every escape plan.

Divya was also the quickest to win her game in the second round, when she defeated another women’s international master Natalie Kanakova.

Over on the ChessBase India broadcast, Divya revealed that she had a very slow start to the game.

“I was one minute away from falling asleep before the game started,” Divya revealed with a chuckle. “I had a complete brain fog in the opening.”

How Arjun Erigaisi won his round 3 game at the Chess Olympiad

Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa at the Chess Olympiad 2024 in Budapest. (PHOTO: FIDE / Michal Walusza)

Over on the Indian team’s third board in the open section where Gukesh and Co were taking the Hungarian B team (as hosts they are allowed to enter two teams), Arjun Erigaisi managed to deliver an overkill of a checkmate, completely trapping his opponent Peter Prohaszka’s king on the h8 square with a ladder mate.

At the time he delivered his checkmate, Arjun had his rook on h7 and another guarding the g file. He also had a bishop on the f file covering the h file rook.

INTERACTIVE: How Arjun Erigaisi beat Peter Prohaszka at the Chess Olympiad

At the end of the game after the handshakes, as Arjun and Peter sat and discussed their game, the Hungarian was mostly just hanging on to every word of Arjun, nodding his head as the Indian explained.

Arjun’s win gave the Indian team a lead against the Hungary B team after Vidit Gujrathi had drawn his match against Gabor Papp with the black pieces.

INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh beat Adam Kozak at the Chess Olympiad

INTERACTIVE: How Praggnanandhaa beat Tamas Banusz at the Chess Olympiad

Gukesh, who will play in the world chess championship match against Ding Liren later in the year, later converted his significant advantage over his opponent Adam Kozak while Praggnanandhaa beat Tamas Banusz to help India win 3.5-0.5.

Ding Liren has so far drawn both his games in the second round against Chile’s Cristobal Henriquez Villagra and in the third round against Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia, after sitting out the first round.

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