Divya Deshmukh with a divine pairing in the FIDE World Chess Cup 2025

Divya Deshmukh, the winner of the FIDE Women World Chess Cup, is now playing in the open competition that has just started in Goa, India. Her round 1 opponent is Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis and you can follow their game here.

While some people believe this is a balanced pairing, other think this is the most difficult pairing for Divya Deshmukh. Just missing a comma in the sentence, this pairing becomes divine! “Oh wow, Divya is playing Jesus” a youtube user, cited by Az exclaimed. IndieChess commented on the game, “[Her opponent] played the Bethlehem gambit!”

More live: World Chess Cup 2025 live / Chessdom’s Twitter/X page