A ten-year-old school girl from Harrow has made chess history after she became the youngest female to beat a chess Grandmaster. Bodhana Sivanandan pulled off the win against 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells in the last round of the 2025 in Liverpool.
Sivanandan’s victory at 10 years, five months and three days beats the 2019 record held by American Carissa Yip, who went on to become an International Master. Bodhana gained 24 points during the event, finishing in equal 26th place, which has been recognised as “remarkable” for a 10-year-old. She has been stirring up a commotion in the chess world for more than a year, having already won more than three junior world titles. Bodhana has now picked up the title of Women’s International Master which is one of the rungs of the ladder to becoming a Grandmaster.
Her game against Peter Wells may have begun a little rocky, but the young chess prodigy soon turned the tide to earn herself a historic win. Danny Gormally, the English Chess Federation’s expert commentator, said: “How on earth did she win
this? She must be some kind of magician!” He added: "She likes to play simple positional moves, nothing special, very solid player and she tends to outplay her opponents later in the game. There's a touch of a [world number-one] Magnus Carlsen or the great Jose Raul Capablanca about her play. I would imagine Magnus Carlsen is probably one of her chess heroes."
More than 1,000 chess players from around the UK attended the event to compete for the title of British Chess Champion. Bodhana was not the only child prodigy to compete in the championships. Supratit Banerjee, 11, finished on 6/9, beating two grandmasters and sealing his first International Master title.
