Thanks to her rating spike, Deekshitha is now the top ranked player in the world among girls under the age of 20, leaving behind Ukraine’s Anastasiia Hnatyshyn (rated 2465).

Over the course of four tournaments, Deekshitha defeated 11 higher-rated opponents, including three international masters, and held 11 more players rated higher than her to draws.

Thanks to her rating spike, Deekshitha is now the top ranked player in the world among girls under the age of 20, leaving behind Ukraine’s Anastasiia Hnatyshyn (rated 2465). (Special Arrangement)

She started her run at the La Plagne Maitre 2026, where she racked up three wins and four draws against higher-rated players. She finished 45th with a performance rating of 2322. She then played the Les Menuires Masters in France, where she had a win and three draws over players rated higher than her. Once she crossed over to Spain, she started to come into her own. At the XIV Torneo Internacional Cidade de Pontevedra Masters in Spain, at the end of July, she started the tournament seeded 81st out of 92 participants. She ended 13th after facing titled opponents in all nine rounds (all of whom were rated higher than her), which included two grandmasters and five international masters. She had three wins, including over 2402-rated international master Facundo Vazquez and 2334-rated international master Angel Gabriel Cordoba Roa. It was at Pontevedra that she earned her IM norm. At the Leca Chess Open in Portugal at the start of August, she racked up four wins and a draw over higher-rated players, with her victory over an international master Daniel Rivera Kuzawka (2220) standing out.

While it is not unusual for players to head to Europe in search of rating gains and norms, and many return with impressive results from a single tour, gaining almost 500 Elo points in one month is still one of the most remarkable rating climbs in recent memory.

Obsessed with the game of chess, Deekshitha’s rise has been staggering. She is now the fourth highest-rated Indian woman, behind only Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, and R Vaishali, and sits ahead of veteran Harika Dronavalli.

One thing Deekshitha’s parents ensured from the very beginning is that she would learn to stand on her own.

Consider the daily commute. Her father, Modipalli Sheshadri Nayudu, an IT professional, would spend over an hour each way driving her to Velocity Chess Academy through Hyderabad’s notorious traffic. Dropping and picking her up consumed as much as four hours of his day. Her mother, a home tutor, couldn’t spare that time either.

Obsessed with the game of chess, Deekshitha’s rise has been staggering. She is now the fourth highest-rated Indian woman, behind only Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, and R Vaishali, and sits ahead of veteran Harika Dronavalli. (Special Arrangement)

That’s when the pre-teen Deekshitha took charge. She began travelling to the academy alone, and soon, she was venturing out of the city for tournaments by herself.

Her recent European tour, her first foreign event, was completed without her parents accompanying her.

“The reason why I go alone and why I survive, no matter what happens, even without my parents physically behind me, is simply that I love this game so much. I don’t want anything to come in the way,” she says.

She considers her parents her biggest supporters. “I do get scared sometimes when they’re not there. But they sat me down one day and told me that these things (problems) just shouldn’t be part of my journey… they shouldn’t obstruct me from doing my best.”

Her European trip would have ended before it even began, had it not been for her mother, who mortgaged her mangalsutra to arrange some money.

That was when her trainer, IM Krishna Teja, stepped in not just offering financial support but also convincing her parents that this trip could change her life.

Deekshitha is also a firm believer in her trainer’s methods. Teja, who runs Velocity Chess Academy, has her start each day with yoga and physical training before her first meal. (Special Arrangement)

Deekshitha is also a firm believer in her trainer’s methods. Teja, who runs Velocity Chess Academy, has her start each day with yoga and physical training before her first meal.

Teja is honest in his assessment.

“Comparatively, in terms of solving complex problems or quick learning, she’s not as good as the remaining prodigies. But she has other qualities which make her impressive,” he says.

Teja explains Deekshitha’s ability to fight till the last pawn, to never give up over the board even in inferior positions is very important at her age.

“With small kids, it’s easy to play worse positions against them because they cannot evaluate accurately. But with Deekshitha, her understanding of position is immaculate. I see most players, especially girls, once they get in bad positions, they often give up. Psychologically, they mess it up. But Deekshitha fights until the end. She is mentally very strong compared to the other girls I’ve seen.”