London chess prodigy, 10, becomes Woman International Master

BBC News

5 days ago

A 10-year-old chess prodigy from north-west London has become the youngest person to earn the woman international master title.Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, also became the youngest female player to beat a chess grandmaster at the 2025 British Chess Championship earlier this month.In 2024 Bodhana was thought to have become the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport when she was selected for England Women's Team at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary.Her father Siva previously told the BBC he had no idea where his daughter got her talent from as neither he or his wife, both engineering graduates, are any good at chess.
The International Chess Federation said on its social media account on X that Bodhana "pulled off the win against 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells in the last round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool".The federation added: "Sivanandan's victory at 10 years, five months and three days beats the 2019 record held by American Carissa Yip (10 years, 11 months and 20 days)."Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain and the rank is held for life.Bodhana's new title - woman international master - is the second highest-ranking title given exclusively to women, second only to woman grandmaster. Bodhana first took up chess during the Covid-19 pandemic.She told the BBC last year: "When one of my dad's friends was going back to India, he gave us a few bags [of possessions]. "There was a chess board, and I was interested in the pieces so I started playing."She says chess makes her feel "good" and helps her with "lots of other things like maths, how to calculate".