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A British schoolgirl has become the best female chess player in Europe after winning a continental tournament at just eight years old.
Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow in northwest London, was named the best female player at the European rapid and blitz championship, held in Zagreb, Croatia.
The win comes after she began playing chess at just five years old, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says she wants to become a grandmaster, England’s youngest Olympic gold medallist and to eventually win a world title.
She beat her first international master, England’s women’s coach 39-year-old Lorin D’Costa, in the penultimate round, before drawing with the two-time Romanian champion Vladislav Nevednichy, 54, in the final round.
Competitors said that while they were impressed with her 5/11 result in the rapid round, her performance in the 13-round blitz is being hailed by fellow players as phenomenal.
Irina Bulmaga, 30, the Romanian international master and woman grandmaster who was also at the competition, said it was an ‘unbelievable result’ by an eight-year-old, adding: ‘Winning the first prize among women ahead of me and a bunch of other experienced players! What a phenomenon she is!’
Bodhana Sivanandan (pictured) was invited to Downing Street this summer, and was seen playing chess with Rishi Sunak
Earlier this year the chess champion met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak along with other chess champion Shreyas Royal, 14
Lawrence Trent, the chess commentator and international master, wrote on X: ‘Bodhana Sivanandan is one of the greatest talents I’ve witnessed in recent memory. The maturity of her play, her sublime touch, it’s truly breathtaking.
‘I have no doubt she will be England’s greatest player and most likely one of the greatest the game has ever seen.’
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Dominic Lawson, president of the English Chess Federation, told the Times the Londoner’s performance at the speed chess event was ‘completely remarkable but not that surprising, because she is a phenomenon’.
‘It’s an extraordinary result for an eight-year-old and something we’ve certainly never seen in this country.
‘She has a remarkably mature playing style, it’s strategic and patient. She has what you might describe as a long game.’
Bodhana was invited to Downing Street this summer, and was seen playing chess with Rishi Sunak, shortly before the government announced it was going to invest £1 million to try and increase the number of English grandmasters.
Bodhana was invited to Downing Street this summer, and was seen playing chess with Rishi Sunak, shortly before the government announced it was going to invest £1 million to try and increase the number of English grandmasters. Pictured: The Prime Minister with Bodhana and Sheryas
On just a few days, on December 28, she will be competing at the International Chess Congress in Hastings, East Sussex
Bodhana is currently the world’s third-highest rated player born in 2015 in classical chess.
She previously told an Indian broadcaster that she began playing chess after rescuing a board that was going to be donated to charity.
‘I got fascinated with the pieces and I started taking them. I kept asking questions so my dad then taught me [how to play] using YouTube,’ she said.
She became England’s first world youth champion in 25 years, after she won titles in classical, rapid and blitz competitions.
And in just a few days, on December 28, she will be competing at the International Chess Congress in Hastings, East Sussex.
