WCM Modipalli Deekshitha soared from 1985 to a live rating of 2454 in four European tournaments, climbing to second in the world among girls under 20.
Just over a month ago, the 14-year-old Indian from Hyderabad was rated below 2000. Now she has reached a live rating of 2454, earned her first international master norm, and became the second-highest-rated girl under 20 in the world and the fourth-highest-rated Indian woman, ahead of GM Harika Dronavalli.
Deekshitha earned an extraordinary 469 rating points during a four-tournament tour of Europe, beginning in France and then moving to Spain and Portugal. The last two tournaments alone—the Pontevedra Open and Leca Open—added 297 points to her rating.
It’s a remarkable climb, but it didn’t come entirely without warning. At the KCA International Chess Festival last year, just months after she turned 13, she defeated GM Manuel Petrosyan, rated more than 600 points above her. In the Indian Women’s Team Chess Championship earlier this year, she defeated IM Padmini Rout, who represented India in the Chess Olympiad on multiple occasions.
During her European tour, the highlight came in Pontevedra, Spain, from July 24-30. Deekshitha was seeded 81st with a rating of 1985 among the 92 participants. She finished 13th with 5.5/9, with all nine opponents titled, including two GMs and five IMs. Deekshitha scored five draws and won three games, two of them against IMs.
The highlight was her win against 2402-rated IM Facundo Vazquez.
The result secured Deekshitha a 2465 performance, a rating gain of 184 points and her first IM norm, as well as a WGM and a WIM norm.
Deekshitha Modipalli, just 13 or 14, was rated under 2000 last month, but made an IM norm in Pontevedra! 🇮🇳🤯
She matched Sarayu Velpula’s ridiculous feat from 3 years ago (!), and like Sarayu then, she’s also gaining over 400 Elo from mainly Pontevedra & the Leça Open!
📷: CBI pic.twitter.com/DtvYmDXr5w
— Women’s Chess Coverage (@OnTheQueenside) August 6, 2026
But her European tour hadn’t reached its final destination. The Leca Chess Open in Portugal, some hours south, started on July 31, the day after the Pontevedra event ended. It didn’t take long before she proved that her result in Spain had not been a one-off.
In the second round, she defeated 2373-rated FM Lennert Lenaerts.
Vazquez, one of her victims from Spain, got his revenge in Portugal, but Deekshitha responded with consecutive victories over IM Daniel Rivera Kuzawka and FM Samuel Jesus Pereira Goncalves. A draw against FM Miguel Sismeiro took her to 4.5/7, in contention for her second IM norm.
However, the 14-year-old lost her last two games, finishing with 4.5/9 and a 2302 rating performance, enough to secure her second WIM norm. She also added 122 points to her rating.
Before her rampage in Spain and Portugal, Deekshitha scored two great results in France. At the La Plagne Masters, she scored 5/9 finishing 45th with a 2322 performance. She then played the Les Menuires Masters, where she finished on 4.5/9, gaining 29 rating points.
Her coach, IM Krishna Teja at his Velocity Chess Academy in Hyderabad, tells Chess.com that one of Deekshitha’s greatest strengths is her ability to recover when tournaments are going badly.
“Deekshitha is comparatively good at handling pressure,” he said, pointing to a recurring pattern of strong comebacks in the second half of events.
That was evident throughout her European trip. According to Krishna, Deekshitha scored enough points for a WIM norm at La Plagne but missed out because she had not faced enough titled opponents. At Les Menuires, she struggled through the first six rounds before winning her final three games.
Pontevedra was where everything came together. Krishna noted Deekshitha was slightly worse in several games against 2400-rated opponents but managed to defend difficult positions. At other times, instead of defending, she created imbalances and managed to turn inferior positions into wins.
He was arguably even more impressed with her chess in Portugal.
“Her last tournament games were the best, except the last two games,” he said, highlighting three or four attacking victories against higher-rated opponents. He also praised two games she eventually lost after continuing to fight rather than looking for an easy draw.
ChessBase India visited Krishna’s successful chess academy in Hyderabad last year.
By the conclusion of the four tournaments, Deekshitha’s live rating had climbed from 1985 to an incredible 2454. The rating gain also transformed Deekshitha’s place on the world rankings. At 1985, she was around 30,000th among active players worldwide. With a 2454 rating, she is now among the top 1000 highest-rated players in the world—a leap of about 29,000 places in little more than a month.
Among women, she is currently ranked world number-21.
Deekshitha’s journey in chess has been unusually fast. Her father said in an interview with ChessBase India that she began playing in early 2022, during the COVID-19 period, when she was nine. Less than a year later, Deekshitha won the 2023 National Schools Under-11 Girls Championship. Rated just 1226, she scored 7.5/9 and took the title on tiebreak.
Her progress continued in 2025 by dominating the Indian National Under-13 Girls Championship unbeaten with 9.5/11.
Curiously, there is a parallel between her breakthrough and the spectacular rise of another student of Krishna and his chess academy.
In 2023, Chess.com reported on how then 17-year-old WIM Sarayu Velpula, rated only 1845 at the time, played the same Pontevedra-Leca double. She scored one of the most sensational results ever by finishing second in Pontevedra with 6.5/9 and a 2575 rating performance, earning WIM, WGM, and IM norms.
Three years later, Deekshitha has followed the same route through Spain and Portugal. While her rise spread across four tournaments, the effect was similarly noteworthy as she is yet another example of a heavily underrated Indian teenager climbing hundreds of rating points in a matter of weeks.
The difference is that Deekshitha is only 14—and she has already crossed 2450. “I am completely focused on chess,” Deekshitha said in the ChessBase India interview.
I am completely focused on chess.
—Deekshitha Modipalli
She explained that she does not attend regular classes and goes to school only to take her examinations. Her father said she had stopped attending school regularly in early 2023.
Deekshitha has also had to become independent at a young age. By 13, she was traveling alone to local tournaments because her parents were not always available to take her.
“My parents are not that available to drive me to every tournament,” she said. “For local tournaments, I have to go by myself.”
Her ambitions are equally clear. “My ultimate goal is to become a GM and world champion,” Deekshitha said, “but my current goal is to become a WIM or a WGM.”
Deekshita is now returning to India, and her next challenge will be maintaining the level once her official rating catches up.