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11-Year-Old Bodhana Sivanandan Becomes Youngest Grandmaster, Makes Chess History
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News18•29-09-2026, 16:54
11-Year-Old Bodhana Sivanandan Becomes Youngest Grandmaster, Makes Chess History
- •Bodhana Sivanandan, an 11-year-old English-Tamil girl, has become the youngest Grandmaster in chess history, breaking the previous record held by Kateryna Lagno.
- •Hailing from a family originally from Trichy, India, Bodhana plays chess for England and lives in Carshalton.
- •Her interest in chess began during the COVID-19 lockdown at age 5, quickly leading to victories in major tournaments like the European School Championship and European Blitz Chess Championship.
- •Bodhana represented England in the Chess Olympiad in Hungary, becoming the youngest English player to qualify for such a major tournament.
- •She defeated Grandmaster Peter Wells at age 10 and achieved the Women's Grandmaster title at the 46th Chess Olympiad, with a goal to win the World Chess Championship.
Key Questions Answered
Bodhana first discovered chess at age five during the COVID-19 lockdown when she found a chessboard in a bag of items left behind by a friend of her father.
Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest Woman Grandmaster in history following her impressive campaign at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Bodhana is an English-Tamil girl living in Harrow, north-west London, whose parents originally moved to England from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu.
