Latest news with #Bodhana
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First Post
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- First Post
Graphics: How Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female to defeat a Grandmaster
Let's take a look at the journey of Bodhana Sivanandan, a 10-year-old British chess prodigy of Indian origin, who became the youngest female to defeat a Grandmaster. She also earned her Woman International Master title and first Woman Grandmaster norm in the same event. Bodhana Sivanandan, a 10-year-old British girl of Indian origin, has just etched her name in history books. She stunned the chess world by becoming the youngest female player ever to defeat a Grandmaster. The chess prodigy beat 60-year-old English GM Peter Wells in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championship in Liverpool on Sunday, August 10. Bodhana also became the youngest Woman International Master (WIM) and secured her first Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm in the same event. Her family is originally from Trichy, Tamil Nadu but Bodhana was born and brought up in Harrow, London. Her remarkable achievements at such a young age have made her one of the biggest rising players in world chess. Let's explore her journey so far through some creative graphics attached below. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
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First Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- First Post
Who is Bodhana Sivanandan? All you need to know about youngest female player to defeat a Grandmaster
British chess player Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female player to defeat a Grandmaster when he beat Peter Wells in the final round of the British Chess Championship in Liverpool on Sunday. Here's more on the 10-year-old chess prodigy. read more British Woman FIDE Master Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female player to defeat at Grandmaster at the age of 10 years, 5 months and 1 day, breaking the record previously held by USA's Carissa Yip. Image credit: FIDE Indians sure are making headlines when it comes to chess whichever part of the world they live in, whether they're representing India or not. The young trio of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi have been hogging the limelight for the better part of the last couple of years, while Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh have been keeping the Indian flag flying high in the women's game. Bodhana Sivanandan, a Briton of Indian origin, forced the chess player to sit up and take notice of her after becoming the youngest female player ever to defeat a Grandmaster on Sunday. Bodhana achieved the feat at the tender age of 10 years, five months and one day when she defeated 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells in the final round of the British Chess Championship in Liverpool. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest girl to defeat a GM at just 10 years old (5 months and 3 days) in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships! 👏 The previous record was held by IM Carissa Yip. — Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) August 10, 2025 USA's Carissa Yip was the previous holder of the record, having achieved the feat at the age of 10 years, 11 months and 20 days in 2019. That wasn't the only record that Bodhana broke as she also became the youngest Woman International Master with her victory over Wells while also securing her first Woman Grand Master norm during the course of the event. Who is Bodhana Sivanandan? Woman FIDE Master Bodhana's family hails from Tiruchirappalli in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Her father, Sivanandan Velayutham, had moved to London along with his family in 2007, eight years before Bodhana was born. Bodhana, who began to play chess at the age of five, had discovered her love for the game by accident, having stumbled across a board at home. 'Bodhana started playing chess when she was just five years old. We had no plans to make her play chess. She just stumbled across a chess board at home, and started to play,' Bodhana's father Sivanandan told The Indian Express. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'I knew just basic chess, so I downloaded to help her learn by watching the videos there. Back then, I just got her a free version, thinking she might not continue the sport,' he added. Little did young Bodhana, or her family members, know that she would become the face of British chess not long after her first introduction to the game. She had, after all, met then-British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street at the tender age of 8. And after her victory over Wells, Bodhana has the entire chess world buzzing at the discovery of another young prodigy who has the makings of a star.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Bodhana Sivanandan, Indian-origin phenom from England, sets record as youngest girl to beat a grandmaster
Bodhana Sivanandan, a 10-year-old British girl with Indian roots, made history on Sunday when she defeated Grandmaster Peter Wells in the last round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool, thus becoming the youngest-ever female chess player in history to defeat a grandmaster. Bodhana set the record at the age of 10 years, five months and three days to beat the record held by American Carissa Yip since 2019, who was also 10 when she defeated her first grandmaster. Bodhana, a Woman FIDE Master, traces her roots to Tamil Nadu's Trichy, where her family lived until her father, Sivanandan Velayutham, who works in the IT sector, moved them to London in 2007. Bodhana was born and brought up in London and despite her young age, she has already become the face of British chess. At the age of eight, she was even invited to 10 Downing Street in August 2023 by then British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was planning to announce a financial package for chess in the UK. Chess for Bodhana happened almost by accident. 'Bodhana started playing chess when she was just five years old. We had no plans to make her play chess. She just stumbled across a chess board at home, and started to play,' Bodhana's father Sivanandan Velayutham had told The Indian Express last year. 'I knew just basic chess, so I downloaded to help her learn by watching the videos there. Back then, I just got her a free version, thinking she might not continue the sport,' he said. Sivanandan was mistaken. Bodhana has spent the last few years making headlines and breaking records. She's already won three world junior titles. Yet, her victory over the 60-year-old Wells caused a flutter in British chess circles. After all, Wells is still an active chess player, and Bodhana's title of Woman FIDE Master is at least five rungs below the grandmaster title, the ultimate title in chess. The event helped her earn the final 'norm' she needed to take one step up and acquire the Women's International Master title. Bodhana's victory also came as a bit of a shock because she was in trouble in the middle game against a player of Wells' experience. By the 19th move, dark clouds of trouble hovered over her pieces as both of Wells' menacing knights started advancing towards her king. By the 26th move, she was staring at defeat. After a brief respite, she was again fighting a losing cause on move 37. But it took just three moves — a careless knight hop from Wells ( an aggressive rook maneuver from Bodhana threatening the black king ( and finally an ill-advised side shuffle from the queen ( — to overturn the entire game and led to Wells resigning. 'How on earth did she win this? She must be some kind of magician!' Danny Gormally, the English Chess Federation's expert commentator, reportedly remarked during the live broadcast stream. Bodhana gained 24 rating points during the event and finished joint 26th in the open event, which was remarkable for her age. She could have chosen to play in the age group events and easily swept the titles in her categories like U12. 'She likes to play simple positional moves… very solid player. But she tends to outplay her opponents later in the game. There's a touch of Magnus Carlsen or the great Jose Raul Capablanca about her play,' Gormally said in commentary. Unsurprisingly, Capablanca is one of her favourite players, while Carlsen, who has become a reference point for most young prodigies, only gets mentioned third in her list of favourites. 'I really like Capablanca because of his end games,' she had told The Indian Express last year. 'I also like Judit Polgar and Carlsen.' When asked what she likes about chess, Bodhana, who keeps her replies short and to the point, said: 'I really like that it activates your brain and that it involves strategy and calculation.' Unlike other kids from India, who single-mindedly dedicate themselves to the pursuit of chess, education is a big part of Bodhana's daily routine. She also learnt to play the piano and violin a couple of years ago. But for now, chess has a hold on her imagination. 'I like chess more than playing the piano and violin because there's no grading in piano and in chess you can keep improving,' she said. 'Bodhana is an inspiration to girls. The way she exudes calmness and maturity on the board,' said FM Tim Wall, English Chess Federation's Director of Junior Chess, who oversees the age group categories for the national federation. 'She clearly has a very strong work ethic. She certainly has a very high ceiling.' Wall prophesizes that Bodhana can become a grandmaster 'in three to four years.' If that prophecy comes true, that would be a rapid rise even by chess' lightning-fast standards, where there have been grandmasters at the age of 12. Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
News18
2 days ago
- Sport
- News18
Who Is Bodhana Sivanandan, 10-Year-Old Record-Breaking Chess Star?
Last Updated: 10-year-old chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan from Harrow has beaten GM Peter Wells at the 2025 British Chess Championships. Young chess star Bodhana Sivanandan recently created history to become the youngest girl to defeat a Grand Master at only 10 years old in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships, going on to break a record held by American Carissa Shiwen Yip in 2019. Bodhana beat the 60-year-old English chess GM Peter Wells. Sivanandan is from Harrow, a town in Greater London and the daughter of Indian Tamil parents from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. She attends the St John Fisher Primary School in Harrow. 'I love to play chess because it helps me to recognise patterns, focus my attention and helps me to learn how to strategise and calculate moves in advance. Also, I like the way the chess pieces move on the board, especially the knight," Bodhana told The Guardian three years back, having started to play the game as a five-year-old during lockdown. English chess master Leonard Barden wrote three years ago, 'Bodhana Sivanandan, who won silver medals in both the rapid and blitz European under-8 girls, is world No 1 girl in blitz in her age group by a whopping margin of 322 Fide points" and 'Sivanandan's medals in Serbia match Houska's fifth place on her debut in the 1988 world girls U10". In the European Schools age group championships held in Rhodes three years ago, Bodhana won all 24 matches she played and gained three gold medals. Bodhana Sivanandan is one of the greatest talents I've witnessed in recent memory. The maturity of her play, her sublime touch, it's truly breathtaking. I have no doubt she will be England's greatest player and most likely one of the greatest the game has ever seen #Chess — Lawrence Trent (@LawrenceTrentIM) December 13, 2023 Two years ago, Bodhana beat veteran British chess player Peter Lee in an exhibition game. Last month, at the age of 10, she became the youngest chess player to earn a Woman GM norm, breaking Chinese GM Hou Yifan's 20-year-old record. view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
