The recent FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 was a historic event for Chess in more ways than one. Apart from seeing the rise of a new star in the form of teenage tournament winner Divya Deshmukh, it also attracted a far higher livestreaming viewership peak than any previous female event in the game.
After nearly a month of action at the Grand Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Batumi, Georgia, it came down to two Indians to fight it out for the trophy and a winner's purse of $50,000. In the end, it was the youth of Divya Deshmukh that trumped the experience of Grandmaster Koneru Humpy. The 19-year-old emerged as the third winner of the Women's World Cup, which had a $691,250 prize pool.
The victory not only made the still-teenage Divya Deshmukh the youngest to ever clinch this competition but also earned her the GM title, making her the fourth woman from India to do so. It also made her one of the handful of Chess players in history to achieve the coveted norm by winning a major FIDE event rather than collecting the usual three GM norms and 2500 rating.
The Nagpur, India, native also qualified for the prestigious 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament, where the next challenger for the women's world championship title will be determined. She was joined by the other two podium finishers, Koneru Humpy and the former women’s world champion, GM Tan Zhongyi from China.
With so much at stake and a stacked field consisting of some of the world's top players, attention on this Chess competition was naturally high. And with two Indians making the final, and three making the top eight, one of the game's largest audience markets came alive, helping it hit a record 34,023 Peak Viewers (PV), the highest for any women’s tournament in the game.
The 34,000 peak live viewers that the FIDE Women's World Chess Cup 2025 reached was almost 10,000 viewers more than the previous record holder, the 2021 Women's Speed Chess Championship. The ChessBase India official YouTube channel played a massive role in this outcome, posting just over 24,000 PV as fans tuned in to see which of their two representatives would top the podium.
Interestingly, four of the five most popular matches in women's chess history have come in 2024 and 2025, pointing to the game's steady popularity and the growth of the female segment among livestreaming audiences. Another indication of these takeaways was that the World Cup also posted 302,864 Hours Watched (HW), making it the fifth most-watched female Chess tournament ever.
As Chess continues to evolve and find new audiences in today's hyper-digital world, thanks to a livestreaming renaissance, the fact that young and upcoming players are finding success has surely played a crucial role. Apart from the 19-year-old Divya Deshmukh's recent win, we also saw D Gukesh become the youngest world champion last year, aged 18. Their wins will only make the ancient sport more captivating to younger viewers, which can only be a good thing for its long-term health.
