Last week, 10-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan made history by defeating grandmaster Peter Wells in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool. She took the title of the youngest female player ever to beat a grandmaster, at just 10 years, 5 months, and 3 days old. This broke the previous record held by Carissa Yip, who accomplished the feat in 2019 just before her 11th birthday.
Bodhana, who lives in the United Kingdom, first started playing chess at the age of five after getting a chess set as a gift. She learned the game by watching YouTube videos and was soon competing in tournaments locally and internationally. She says she was initially drawn to the knight and queen pieces as toys, but her father encouraged her to learn to play the game.
Bodhana says that she enjoys playing stronger opponents because it helps her learn and improve. Malcolm Pein, international director of the English Chess Federation, believes she has the potential to become the greatest women’s chess player of all time and is certain she’ll earn the title of grandmaster one day. Her mother, Lakshmy Sivanandan, describes her as a normal child with lots of interests, including piano, violin, and soccer, and says Bodhana dreams of one day becoming a doctor, prime minister, and chess grandmaster. Dream big, girl!