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| It was quite stressful, you have to keep up your stamina: Divya Deshmukh on title triumph | | | NEW DELHI, Aug 3: Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh has revealed that achieving the goal of winning the FIDE Women's World Cup title was "quite stressful" but she was determined to go all the way after the tough matches in the lead-up to the title clash against Koneru Humpy in Batumi, Georgia recently.
Divya, 19, overcame Humpy in the tie-breaker after two nerve-wracking classical games ended in draws to become the first Indian woman to win the prestigious title and become a Grandmaster.
"It was quite stressful. Quite difficult at least because also it's such a long event. You have to keep up your stamina. You have to be resistant and you have to show up on the board every single day to give your best. Thankfully, I was never in a situation where I had to be in a must-win (situation). So, I don't know how I would have coped with that," said Divya in an interaction posted by FIDE on social media.
The Nagpur player added that though she was nervous going into the final, she wanted to give it her best shot after coming this far.
"I think from an emotional perspective, maybe, but the finals was incredibly difficult. The pressure, the nerves the toll that the entire tournament was taking and the feeling like you've come so far and now you cannot go back down so I would say it was quite difficult.
"I think there was always some part of me that would never give up. So I always wanted to fight, but after I lost the second match I was quite disappointed or mainly because I got a good position at the opening..
Beating an opponent like GM Dronavalli Harika in a tough quarterfinals was a key motivations which helped Divya to go all the way to the final. The match went to a tiebreak after two classical games ended in draws. Divya won both tiebreak games to advance to the semifinals.
"Harika was definitely quite strong, but I think because I had gone through (some tough games) already... by the time I got to Harika, I was already quite sure.
Divya said she was taking it one game at a time and only started entertaining thoughts of winning the title after she had reached the final.
"At least, I never had the thoughts of winning the tournament until I was in the finals. I knew that of course there's some part of you that always, you know, wants (to be) the best, but I was just trying to survive.
Divya then beat Tan Zhongyi of China in the semifinals, one of the strongest players in the world.
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