UK (Commonwealth Union)_ On Monday at the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool, 10-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest female in history to defeat a chess grandmaster. The youthful prodigy, who lives in Harrow, London, defeated 60-year-old English Grandmaster Peter Wells in the final round, achieving a historic victory that sent shockwaves across the British chess world. Bodhana beat the previous record set by American International Master Carissa Yip, who accomplished the same performance in 2019. With this victory, Bodhana solidified her position as one of the most promising young players in world chess.
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Born in London in March 2015 to Indian Tamil parents, Bodhana started playing chess during the COVID-19 lockdown. Sivanandan Velayutham, her father and an IT professional from Trichy, Tamil Nadu, unexpectedly introduced her to the game. “One of my dad’s friends gave us a few bags of things before moving back to India,” Bodhana once shared in an interview. “There was a chessboard in one of them, and I got curious.” What began as a simple interest quickly turned into a passion. By the age of eight, Bodhana had already won three world titles in the under-eight category, across classical, rapid, and blitz formats. Her accomplishments also garnered national recognition in 2023, when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked her to visit 10 Downing Street to assist in inaugurating a government chess project.
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Quiet by nature, Bodhana is known for walking into tournaments with a vibhuti mark and a bindi on her forehead, symbols of her cultural roots. Despite her reserved demeanor, her results are undeniable. In 2022, she captured silver in both speed and blitz at the European Under-8 championships. That same year, she achieved a perfect 24/24 score at the European Schools Championship in Rhodes, an achievement described as exceptional by longtime chess columnist Leonard Barden. Bodhana, who now holds the title of Woman FIDE Master, is swiftly rising through the rankings. Her most recent victory over Grandmaster Wells not only broke records but also represented a watershed moment in her short career, indicating that this 10-year-old is more than simply a future star and is already a force to be reckoned with.
