For the first time ever, Indian chess grandmaster Divya Deshmukh has made it into the top 10 of the women’s classical chess live rankings in her career. The rankings came after Deshmukh’s third-place finish at the 2026 Prague Chess Challengers event. Her entry into the top 10 rankings has now placed her at a career-high 2509.3. At the Prague event, the Indian finished with five points from two wins and six draws in nine games.
Competing in the final round on Friday, March 6, Divya defeated the Czech Republic’s Hrbek Stepan with black pieces. Meanwhile, Finek Vanclav of the Czech Republic won the event with a score of 6.5 points by half a point, finishing ahead of Spain’s Daniel Yuffa.
Divya is next headed to make her action at the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates alongside her fellow Indians Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu. In the classical chess event, the Indian had already secured her qualification after winning the 2025 Chess World Cup title.
In three weeks, the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament is set to begin on March 28 at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The tournament will feature eight of the best female chess players from across the world, who will compete in a double round-robin format which will be conducted in fourteen rounds of classical play.
The event will determine who will get the right to challenge China’s Ju Wenjun, the reigning Women’s World Champion in the final stage of the World Championship cycle.
Women’s classical chess Live Ratings
1. Hou Yifan (China) – 2596.0
2. Lei Tingjie (China) – 2566.0
3. Ju Wenjun (China) – 2559.0
4. Zhu Jiner (China) – 2554.5
5. Koneru Humpy (India) – 2535.0
6. Tan Zhongyi (China) – 2535.0
7. Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE/Russia) – 2534.0
8. Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) – 2522.0
9. Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) – 2516.0
10. Divya Deshmukh (India) – 2509.6
