{"id":788738,"date":"2026-10-01T16:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788738\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T16:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:56:09","slug":"school-gate-to-checkmate-british-chess-prodigy-11-is-youngest-ever-woman-grandmaster-chess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788738\/","title":{"rendered":"School gate to checkmate: British chess prodigy, 11, is youngest ever woman grandmaster | Chess"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest ever<\/a> holder of the title of woman grandmaster at the Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan \u2013 while playing on a car booster seat so she could reach the board. By Tuesday morning she was back at school in north London for a design and technology lesson.<\/p>\n

Bodhana has to juggle the competing pressures of being an international chess sensation with the more ordinary challenges of childhood and her first term at secondary school.<\/p>\n

She takes it all in her stride. \u201cI\u2019m used to going to tournaments and then coming back to school the next day,\u201d she told the Guardian in her first interview since returning to the family home in Harrow. \u201cNow that I\u2019m in secondary school there might be more homework, but I should be able to manage.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has won three smartphones at various tournaments but she is still too young to be allowed to use them. \u201cOne day I\u2019d like a phone, but I\u2019m fine without,\u201d she said. Sitting beside her, her father, Sivanandan Velayutham, who works in IT, added: \u201cI don\u2019t think it is the right time for her to have a phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bodhana\u2019s meteoric rise up the chess rankings suggests she is thriving without the distraction of social media, even if it means missing congratulatory posts from her growing fanbase including Rachel Reeves<\/a>, Rishi Sunak<\/a> and the children\u2019s commissioner, Rachel de Souza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rishi Sunak hosting Bodhana at No 10 in 2023. Photograph: Simon Walker\/No 10 Downing Street<\/p>\n

Competing in Uzbekistan meant the family had to secure an authorised absence from her new school and she will have to catch up on a fortnight of missed classes. But Bodhana is a fast learner; her father taught her to play chess when she was five, and within a year, and with the help of YouTube videos, she was beating him.<\/p>\n

When she was seven, Bodhana won 5-1 playing simultaneously against six members of her local Harrow chess club. At eight she managed to beat the former British champion Peter Lee<\/a>. In July she became the youngest girl to beat a grandmaster with a rating of over 2,600<\/a>, and she was the youngest person ever to be selected for an England team in any sport.<\/p>\n

Bodhana\u2019s latest victories in Samarkand give her a rating of 2,382, surpassing the required 2,300 points to become a woman grandmaster. She is just a few points away from the 2,400 required for international master status and needs 2,500 points to be an outright grandmaster. If she achieves that in the next 11 months, she will become the world\u2019s youngest ever grandmaster.<\/p>\n

Bodhana is not aware of that deadline. \u201cI want to become a grandmaster as soon as possible, but I\u2019m doing it because I like it, not to just chase records,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her ambition is simply to be the best player in the world.<\/p>\n

Nigel Short, one of Britain\u2019s best ever chess players, was roundly criticised in 2015 for claiming men\u2019s brains were hardwired to be better at chess<\/a> than women. Bodhana has other ideas. She said: \u201cBy rating, yes men are better than women, but a woman could also achieve the same thing if they work hard enough, so I don\u2019t agree fully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bodhana Sivanandan: \u2018I just try to focus on the game and forget about everything else.\u2019 Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett\/Reuters<\/p>\n

She took on the current world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, in a game of speed chess earlier this year. \u201cIt was a blitz game, and I lasted about 10 minutes. No one likes losing, but losing is kind of necessary to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bodhana has a fearless approach to chess. \u201cI don\u2019t get nervous, but even when I do, I just try to focus on the game and forget about everything else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Eckert, 67, a keen tournament player, could only manage to draw against Bodhana when she was six. \u201cI was fairly confident of winning, but she played the endgame extremely well, which is the sign of a classical player. A lot of these youngsters are incredibly good at tactics, because they\u2019re playing against computers all the time. I was quite surprised she was battling with me on strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bodhana is used to being praised on her classical play and positional sense. \u201cLots of people say that about me. It means you don\u2019t play very sharp tactics, but I can also do that if I need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The booster seat can help unnerve opponents. \u201cSometimes it distracts them, but I don\u2019t know if it freaks them out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her favourite player is Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Capablanca, a Cuban world champion from the 1920s whose books and games she has studied. \u201cI like the way he plays in his endgames,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Away from chess, Bodhana enjoys playing the piano and violin, and reading. She does not watch television because she does not have time; she has eight hours of chess tuition a week paid for by English Chess<\/a> Federation and the Chess Trust.<\/p>\n

Her father is keen to add that the family is also grateful for sponsorship from the Turkish investor Evren \u00dc\u00e7ok, Tangram Therapeutics and the John Robinson Youth Chess Trust.<\/p>\n

Bodhana\u2019s next nine-day tournament could be the London<\/a> Chess Classic at the end of November, but only if it fits in with school and the schedules of her parents and younger twin sisters. \u201cIf good tournaments come up we try to work it around,\u201d said her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not pushy, we just work on our goals and keep going. Opportunities are scarce in this world. You have to understand your kids and know what they like and allow them to shine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the weekend, 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest ever holder of the title of woman grandmaster at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-788738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}