Nagpur chess player Divya Deshmukh receives Arjuna Award from President Murmu

Divya Deshmukh, a 20-year-old chess player from Nagpur, has been presented the Arjuna Award for 2025. President Droupadi Murmu gave her the award at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on November 13.

With the award, Divya has become the youngest Arjuna Award winner from Nagpur. By receiving the honour at such a young age, she has brought credit to Nagpur and Vidarbha.

Divya began playing chess at a very young age, and her game soon began to show in national and international competitions. In 2019, at just 13, she received the Maharashtra government's Chhatrapati Award, and her name figured among the youngest recipients of that award.

In 2023, she won the Asian Continental Women's Chess Championship, which strengthened her standing at the international level.

The year 2024 was special for her career. She won the World Junior Girls' Chess Championship that year. In the same year, she was among those who won the gold medal with the Indian women's team at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. She also won an individual gold medal on Board 3.

The Women's Chess World Cup was played in Batumi, Georgia, in 2025. In the final, Divya beat the veteran Indian player Koneru Humpy in the tiebreak to win the title. With this, she became the first Indian to win the Women's World Cup, and she also earned the Grandmaster title.

Divya is the fourth Indian woman to become a Grandmaster and the first woman Grandmaster from Vidarbha. She is also Nagpur's first Olympiad gold medallist.

According to available figures, Divya has so far won 24 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze medals in international competitions. The Arjuna Award adds another major honour to her list of achievements.