A British child chess prodigy has become the youngest player in history to earn the woman grandmaster (WGM) title at just 11 years old.
Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, from north-west London, secured her third and final WGM norm, a certified title-level performance, while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) confirmed.
Speaking to FIDE, Sivanandan said she was happy about the achievement but wanted to “keep making history”.
It is the latest milestone in a remarkable rise for the schoolgirl, who has already become Britain’s youngest women’s chess champion and the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport.
Sivanandan, from Harrow, played all 11 rounds on England’s top board – a position assigned to the team’s top player – and finished the tournament with eight points.
She had already passed the 2300 rating threshold required for the WGM title before securing her third and final norm.
She told FIDE in an interview on Sunday about making history: “I’m happy to do it, but I want to keep going and keep making history as well, instead of just stopping here.”
Kateryna Lagno, who has represented both Russia and Ukraine, previously held the age record for the WGM title, having achieved it aged 12. Hou Yifan, from China, also achieved the title at 12 and remains the youngest woman to have earned the higher, open grandmaster (GM) title, which she achieved aged 14.
Woman grandmaster is the highest women-only title a female player can attain, and the rank is held for life.
Sivanandan’s success in Samarkand also earned her a second International Master (IM) norm, taking her another step towards the higher title.
Players normally need three qualifying norms and a rating of at least 2400 to become an international master. Sivanandan now has two IM norms.
The international master title, open to both sexes, ranks higher than Sivanandan’s current accolades – the woman grandmaster and woman international master titles.
Speaking to FIDE about her love of the game, she added: “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.”
Her father Siva previously told the BBC he had no idea where his daughter got her talent from as neither he or his wife, both engineering graduates, are any good at chess.
Her rise through chess has been rapid. After teaching herself to play during the coronavirus lockdown, she entered her first tournament at Harrow Chess Club in July 2021.
A year later, aged seven, she won all 24 of her games at the European Schools Championship.
In 2023, she became the youngest person to avoid defeat against a grandmaster in a competitive game at the European Rapid and Blitz Championship in Croatia. The following year, aged nine, she was selected to represent England at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.
The English Chess Federation said that selection, when she was nine, made her the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport.
Last year, aged 10, Sivanandan became the youngest female player to defeat a grandmaster when she beat Peter Wells at the British Chess Championships.
In July this year, she earned her first IM norm at the Dole Open in France, becoming the youngest girl to achieve one, aged 11 years and four months. She also defeated grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi, becoming the youngest girl known to beat a player rated above 2600 in a classical game.