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BENGALURU: AT some level, it does sound funny to 20-year-old Divya Deshmukh that the 20-year-old is at her happiest when she’s motivating the next generation.

“Sometimes, I forget my age,” she says in an interaction with select media a few days before the fourth edition of the Global Chess League (GCL) in the city. “But to me, when I talk about the next generation, I mean a five-year-old or an eight-year-old.”

Even in a country where there is no shortage of chess prodigies, Deshmukh has managed to stand out. And wherever she has gone over the last year, kids as young as five have asked for photographs. In fact, when she was in Goa for the World Cup (open) last year, the then teen was mobbed several times, both at the venue as well as the Opening Ceremony.

A few months before that World Cup, she created history when she became the first Indian to win the women’s World Cup. It changed her life. “It has changed in a very drastic way,” she says. “Both pros and cons, more pros I would say. “What I really like about that is that it has motivated the next generation. There’s a lot of kids that come up to me and say that they have watched my games. It’s nice to me. One of the cons is that I have to deal with the pressure and I have to deal with that. Overall, it has been a very nice thing that happened.”

That World Cup triumph, where she beat compatriot Koneru Humpy in the final in Batumi, meant she achieved the GM title on the spot rather than having to earn three GM norms (she became only the seventh woman to achieve the title as a teen). A couple of things happened post that triumph in Georgia. It convinced her that she had capacity to stay with players twice her age and experience. Even for somebody who’s naturally confident, ‘it added to my confidence’.

“It was special that I got it (the title) by winning the World Cup. It added to my confidence but I knew that if I didn’t get the GM title now, I would get it in the next six months or so. It didn’t matter to me when I got it but I knew I was going to get it anyway.”