Divya Deshmukh Leads Norway Chess 2026, Outshining the Veterans

When the dust settles on the rounds being played in Oslo this week, one name keeps reappearing at the top of the women's leaderboard, and it belongs to a 20-year-old from Nagpur.

Norway Chess is widely regarded as one of the toughest invitational events on the calendar, a closed, elite tournament where only a handful of players get a seat.

Divya Deshmukh and a Half-Point Cushion in Oslo

After five of the ten scheduled rounds, Deshmukh tops the women's standings with 8½ points, holding off Kazakhstan's Bibisara Assaubayeva, who trails on 8.

Her round-five win, with the black pieces against China's Zhu Jiner, was the kind of game that wins tournaments rather than just points.