Bodhana Sivanandan: 10-year-old Becomes Youngest Girl To Defeat Chess Grandmaster

10-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan created history on Monday as the Indian-origin Britisher defeated English Grandmaster Peter Wells at the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool, becoming the youngest girl to achieve this feat at 10 years, 5 months, and 3 days. This achievement surpassed the previous record set by American International Master Carissa Yip in 2019.

Bodhana Sivanandan Early Milestones

Bodhana Sivanandan, born on March 7, 2015, is an English chess player and holds the Woman FIDE Master title. She hails from Harrow, London, and is of Indian Tamil heritage.

Her early career garnered media attention in the UK in 2022 for 'standout' age-group results, which included European Under-8 rapid and blitz silver medals.

Guardian columnist Leonard Barden described her as “exceptional,” noting these achievements and her 'perfect' 24/24 score at the 2022 European Schools age-group championships in Rhodes, as reported on August 1, 2025.

A September 2024 profile 'highlighted' her rapid ascent and youth accolades, including 'triple World Youth under‑8 titles' and 'European recognition'.

Historic Win at the British Chess Championships

Bodhana defeated Grandmaster Peter Wells in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool. The win helped her surpass Carissa Yip who was the youngest female chess player to defeat a Grandmaster. Yip had earned this accolade in 2019.

Who Is Bodhana Sivanandan?

Bodhana lives in Harrow, north-west London, and picked up the game during the Covid-19 lockdown, at the age of five. Her Tamil Nadu-born father Sivanandan accidentally introduced the kid to chess.

"When one of my dad’s friends was going back to India, he gave us a few bags [of possessions]. There was a chess board, and I was interested in the pieces so I started playing," a BBC report quotes Bodhana as saying.

And there has been no looking back ever since. Bodhana went on to win all three chess world championships for the under-eight age group - in the classical, rapid and blitz formats.