In Great Britain, a 10-year-old schoolgirl from London, Bodhana Sivanandan, set an all-time record by becoming the youngest female chess player in the world to ever defeat a grandmaster. In addition, she won the second highest title in chess – international master.
Her victory took place in the final of the British Chess Championship, where the young athlete was able to beat the 60-year-old grandmaster Pete Wells. It is reported CNN and BBC.
The International Chess Federation officially confirmed the record, noting that Bodhana’s victory at the age of 10 years, 5 months and 3 days surpassed the previous achievement set in 2019 by American Carissa Yip, who defeated the grandmaster at 10 years, 11 months and 20 days.
This is not the first resounding success of a young chess player. Last year she became the youngest ever athlete to represent England at international level in any sport. Bodhana then joined the country’s women’s national team to participate in the Chess Olympiad held in Hungary.
In an interview with the BBC, the girl’s father, Siva Sivanandan, admitted that he could not explain the origin of her talent, because neither he nor his wife played chess professionally. Although both graduated from engineering universities, the family never had much of a chess tradition.
According to Bodhana, she was first introduced to chess at the age of five during the COVID-19 pandemic. The girl saw a chess board in her father’s friend’s bag and at first wanted to use the pieces as toys. However, her father suggested that she learn to play. It was then that her exciting chess story began.
The young chess player says that chess helps her not only in sports, but also in studies, in particular in mathematics. In the future, she sets herself an ambitious goal — to win the highest title in the chess world, to become a grandmaster. Her talent was highly appreciated by experts.
International chess master Malcolm Payne believes that the girl has every chance to reach the highest peaks:
“She is very modest and reserved, but at the same time she shows a brilliant game. I am absolutely sure that she can become the women’s world champion or even the overall champion. She’s definitely on her way to becoming a grandmaster.”
It will be recalled that earlier in the world the achievement of another child prodigy – 14-year-old Ayaryan Shukla from India, who set six world records for mental calculations at once, including adding one hundred four-digit numbers faster than a calculator could do it, became famous in the world.
