Bodhana Sivanandan (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) Ten-year-old British chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan achieved a remarkable victory by defeating former World Champion Grandmaster Mariya Muzychuk at the European Club Cup in Rhodes, Greece on Sunday, becoming one of the youngest chess players to take down a former World Champion.Born in London in 2015 to parents from Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, the young player from north London secured this historic win while representing the 12th-seeded team She Plays to Win Lionesses.
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Despite her team’s 3-1 loss to Turkish Airlines in Round 1, Sivanandan’s victory stood out.The win was particularly significant as Muzychuk, the world number 13 with a FIDE rating of 2485, ranked 280 points above Sivanandan’s 2205.”She seems to be beating a GM every week now!” said English Grandmaster Danny Gormally.”It’s not every day a 10-year-old defeats a GM (and former World Champion) in such style,” remarked England’s number-one Grandmaster David Howell.Grandmaster Susan Polgar, Women’s World Champion from 1996 to 1999, described Sivanandan’s game as “impressive”.Earlier this year, Sivanandan became the youngest female chess player to defeat a grandmaster when she beat 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells at the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool.Her victory at 10 years, five months and three days surpassed the 2019 record held by American Carissa Yip. During the same event, she also became the youngest player to secure a WGM norm.The Harrow schoolgirl, who started playing chess during lockdown, made history in 2024 as the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary.”English chess has been in the doldrums for so many years. We’ve had good players coming through, don’t get me wrong, but we haven’t had great players coming through for many years,” said Gormally.”And now we’ve suddenly got a generation with GM Shreyas Royal and Bodhana, and FM Supratit Banerjee and FM Ethan Pang and others who are actually exciting. We don’t know how strong they’re going to be.”Sivanandan is part of a new generation of English chess talent making their mark in international competitions.
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