BODHANA SIVANANDAN, 11, BECAME YOUNGEST WOMAN GRANDMASTER
An 11-year-old from north-west London became the youngest Woman Grandmaster in chess history.
Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, clinched the title while playing for England at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where she picked up her third and final qualifying norm. She knew she had locked it up on September 26, 2026, The Express Tribune reported.
“I’m happy to do it, but I want to keep going and keep making history as well, instead of just stopping here,” Sivanandan told FIDE after the tournament, Dexerto reported.
No player in history has earned the title at a younger age, the BBC reported. The Woman Grandmaster title is the highest women-only title in chess, and it is held for life.
The previous record belonged to Kateryna Lagno, who earned the title at 12, The Independent reported.
Sivanandan had already cleared the rating threshold for the title before the final norm. She played every round on England’s top board and scored eight points.
She did not even realize she had broken the age record until someone told her, The Times reported.
How a toy chessboard turned into a record
It all started with a bag of hand-me-downs. A family friend gave her father a chessboard among some toys and books, and the young Sivanandan wanted the pieces as playthings.
“One of my dad’s friends was going back to India, and he had a few toys and books, and he gave them to us. And in one of the bags, I saw a chessboard, and I was interested in the pieces. I wanted to use the pieces as toys. Instead, my dad said that I could play the game, and then I started from there,” she said in a 2025 BBC interview.
She climbed fast. At the Chess Olympiad in Budapest in 2024, she became the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport, Dexerto reported, citing the BBC. She is also Britain’s youngest women’s chess champion.
At 10, she became the youngest female player to earn the Woman International Master title, BBC Newsround reported.
In August 2025, she became the youngest female player to beat a grandmaster, defeating Peter Wells at the British Chess Championships, CNN reported.
Through all of it, she still goes to school full-time. She said chess and classes feed each other, and she likes the travel.
“I like travelling and also because I do full-time school as well, it links to loads of school subjects, so it’s really useful there as well,” she told FIDE.
What happened next
Her Olympiad run was not finished paying off. The same performance also earned her a second International Master norm, which the BBC said took her a step closer to the open International Master title.
