Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh has been named the Best Female Player at the 2026 FIDE Excellence Awards. The honour was presented during the closing ceremony of the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, according to the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Javokhir Sindarov was the other recipient of the player awards announced by FIDE.
The announcement completes the player-related honours that had remained pending after the earlier FIDE Excellence Awards ceremony. The awards cover the 2024–2026 Olympiad cycle, which FIDE defines as running from September 2024 to August 2026.
The FIDE Excellence Awards are distinct from the team medals and individual board prizes awarded as part of the. In its official announcement, FIDE named Deshmukh and Sindarov as the recipients without linking the honours to any result or score from the tournament.
Divya Deshmukh was born on December 9, 2005, in Nagpur. According to Chess.com, she has won several major titles, including the Indian Women’s Chess Championship in 2022, the Asian Women’s Chess Championship in 2023 and the FIDE World Junior Girls’ Championship in 2024.
At the age of 18, Deshmukh won the 2024 FIDE World Junior Girls’ Championship. She also played a key role in India’s gold-medal-winning campaign at the 45th in Budapest, scoring 9.5 points from 11 games and winning the individual gold medal on the third board.
Deshmukh reached another major milestone in 2025 when she won the FIDE Women’s World Cup. The victory earned her the Grandmaster title and secured her a place in the 2026 Women’s Candidates Tournament, which determines the challenger for the Women’s World Championship.
As per Chess.com, Divya’s world ranking stands at 648.
Meanwhile, Indian-origin chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan has become the youngest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The 11-year-old London schoolgirl is now the youngest chess player in history to earn the WGM title. She had earlier made history at the age of nine by becoming the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport, when she played for the English Chess Federation.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) confirmed her latest achievement after Sivanandan played all 11 rounds on England’s top board, a position assigned to the team’s highest-ranked player. She finished the tournament with eight points on Sunday.
“I’m happy to do it, but I want to keep going and keep making history as well, instead of just stopping here,” Bodhana told FIDE.
Her performance at the Olympiad also earned her a second International Master (IM) norm, bringing her closer to achieving the IM title.
“I like travelling and also because I do full-time school as well, it links to loads of school subjects, so it’s really useful there as well,” said the schoolgirl, who lives with her family in Harrow, north-west London.
(With inputs from PTI)
