Humpy and Divya Deshmukh remind Chinese of great Indian chess challenge

It took India’s oldest – in Koneru Humpy (ranked 6th at 2528), and youngest – Divya Deshmukh (ranked 20 at 2460) at Pune’s women’s Grand Prix, to squeeze the sole Chinese, Zhu Jiner (ranked 8th at 2525) out of contention.Leading the tournament for six rounds, playing flawless chess, Zhu who leads China’s next generation of women’s chess buccaneers, got a taste of the rising power that India could be, in women’s chess. It came with Humpy staying clutch even as Zhu wilted.
China has 5 women in the Top 10 though Hou Yifan has been inactive for a while, and only Zhu amongst those other four is under 25. India has 4 in the Top 20, including two under the age of 23. Though the Chinese are not about to disappear with the next fleet waiting to be unleashed, Indian women are on the ascendance, as a pack, after years of Humpy and Harika battling it out at the top.
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The rivalry is not catty, it’s unspoken even – carefully left unignited. Its exence is denied even the players, but the anticipated faceoffs in women between the two most populous nations could be well underway with repeated skirmishes as the aggression gets younger. The Chinese have dominated the women’s game for two decades, but the current Indian pack is beginning to poke and prod from several directions.
At stake for Humpy in Pune is a chance to secure her Candidates spot, and give the World title one more good go eventually. Divya looking to score her GM norm in coming months, clambered up to joint second with an outright win for herself, even as Zhu was nudged down to joint second on 5 points. Zhu will be afforded no respite, as she plays an attacking Divya on Tuesday.

In a game of several tws and turns as Humpy kept ceding advantage and wrestling it right back, it was a Zhu blunder on Black’s 44th move which cornered her. The pressure Humpy was exerting was relentless as the usually fast reacting Zhu spent 9 minutes thinking, before foraying her queen too deep and ended up losing her knight on the next turn, that finally loosened the Chinese grip in the tug of war giving the Indian sole lead at 5.5 /7 as queens were exchanged in the endgame.
The rollercoaster saw Humpy, now 38, experience emotions that ranged from “feeling oversmart”, rueing missed advantages to masterfully activating queens and bishops. Hoping to complete 2 of 3 Grand Prix wins, she is confidently leading the home challenge, but it’s hard to miss that Dronavalli Harika and Vaishali Rameshbabu besides Divya, are not surging with a stomp. Even losses and draws are seeing attacking styles.Story continues below this ad
Humpy is reaching back to those ascents of dominance she held for over a decade without winning the World title. Ju Wenjun, 34, won the women’s World title last week beating Tan Zhongyi, 33, last week. But it’s gotten tougher to ignore the Indian surge after India won the women’s Olympiad. When Divya pulled off the audacious attack starting with A and H files (considered weakest), the flamboyance had traces of how Humpy played fearlessly once.
It won’t be wrong to state that Indian surge is what the Chinese achieved a decade ago. But what’s a tad different from the Soviet, Georgian or Chinese chunks of dominance, is the difference in playing styles. Michael Rahal, FIDE chronicler at Pune says there’s plenty of similarities in Chinese and Indian approaches to chess. But he broadly lays out the difference in styles. “The Chinese way is deeply solid, and always in control. Ju Wenjun wins with solidity,’ he says, of what might not be a wildly creative style of play, but good enough to keep winning the World title. Indians – men and women – take after Viswanathan Anand. ‘Indian players are flexible, deeply calculative and very focussed. Theoretical but also practical.’

Humpy beats Zhu Jiner and takes over as the leader of the Indian Women’s Grand Prix in Pune with 2 rounds to go! https://t.co/g4UpCFG2X8 pic.twitter.com/47Rko5ndtN
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 21, 2025
While Polina Shuvalova (ranked 11th) has been very creative in how she attacks when playing in Pune, Rahal says both Zhu (22) and Divya (19), represent the new firebrand ways of playing aggressive attacking chess. “It’s how they take calculated risks, and attack from open play,” he says, explaining the high number of decisive results that panned out.
Both countries have extended institutional support to chess from the very top. “Government support is one thing but in India and China it’s how chess is considered the general public – it’s seen as a serious career. Asian culture supports solid focus and hence resources for the sport. The culture of education leads to a strong work ethic,” he explains.
There’s no ill will among the players, and Zhu Jiner has largely enjoyed her time in India, though Humpy and Divya on back to back days, would have her worried, as her opportunity to seal a Candidates spot is endangered. But none can deny the match-ups are getting crackling.Story continues below this ad
It could well be the rivalry FIDE didn’t know it needed.