Vietnam Masters | Divya Deshmukh ends tournament on positive note
Indian chess prodigy, Divya Deshmukh, upset 50th seed - Nava Roderick - in the ninth round of the 9th HDBank International Chess Tournament in Vietnam to end the tournament on a high. 92nd ranked Divya finished the meet at five points as she claimed a much-higher 56th position.
13-year old Divya Deshmukh outplayed Philippines' IM, Nava Roderick, in the ninth round to conclude the 9th HDBank International Chess Tournament on a positive note in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on Wednesday. The six-day meet featured a total of 151 players from 23 countries, which included 32 Grandmasters.
In the final round of the meet, the Indian teenager utilized her opening advantage with the white pieces well to upset Roderick, seeded 50th, in a marathon 84-move contest that went on for around five hours. This was Deshmukh’s fourth win, as the 92nd ranked Divya finished the meet at five points and jumped to 56th position in the standings, which was higher than expected. The young Indian, who has a 2266 Elo points tally, also gave a performance rating of 2380 and earned as many as 54.8 rating points.
“Today’s game was a good one where my opening forced him to sacrifice a pawn. By the middle game, I became a pawn up with a slight advantage. On my advantage, he started a little counter play which forced me to give back my extra pawn and the position became equal
“In the end game, he had an extra bishop. However, in the following move, he made a mistake that allowed me to
