Indian-origin chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan becomes youngest woman grandmaster at 11

Indian-origin chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan has been crowned the youngest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The 11-year-old London schoolgirl is the youngest chess player in history to earn the WGM title after becoming the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport, when she played for the English Chess Federation at age nine.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) confirmed her latest milestone after she 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 on Sunday.

“I’m happy to do it, but I want to keep going and keep making history as well, instead of just stopping here,” Bodhana told FIDE.

Her success over the weekend has earned her a second International Master (IM) norm, which takes her another step closer to becoming an international master.

“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,” said the schoolgirl, who lives with her family in Harrow in north-west London.

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Bodhana is famously a self-taught genius, having first picked up chess during the COVID pandemic lockdown when her father Siva’s friend was going back to India and gave her some bags which contained a chessboard.

Last month, she became Britain’s youngest-ever Women’s Chess Champion at the 2026 British Chess Championships in Coventry and has been toppling records as one of the youngest players on the circuit for the past few years now.

In the faster formats of the game, Bodhana is already the UK Open Women’s Blitz Champion and joint British Women’s Rapid Champion.