British Chess Championships 2025 Rewrites the Record Books: 10-Year-Old Bodhana Snatches GM Scalp
The final round, one board, one moment—and a whole decade of precedent overturned
On the last afternoon of this year’s British Chess Championships in Liverpool, a packed hall held its breath. When the last piece sealed the move list, 10-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan had claimed the game—and with it the crown of youngest female player ever to defeat a grandmaster.
- Age at victory: 10 years, 5 months and 3 days
- Opponent felled: Peter Wells, seasoned British grandmaster and veteran of 25 Olympiad boards
- Previous record holder: Carissa Yip of the United States (2019, aged 10-11-20)
How the day unfolded
Sunday’s schedule paired Sivanandan—still rated as a woman-international-master—to Wells on top board of the rapid-play finale. Spectators expected experience to dominate; instead, precision tactics and fearless sacrifices delivered checkmate in 45 moves. The crowd erupted; photographers fought for a clear angle of the pint-sized trailblazer who had just erased six years off the mark.
What this win means
For the championships
The British Chess Championships earned worldwide attention far beyond its usual national spotlight, trending online from Mumbai to Minneapolis.
For the sport
- The victory underlines the accelerating emergence of pre-teen talents on the global stage.
- Publicists hope the feat will inspire equal visibility for girls’ competitions long marginalized in sponsorship deals.
- National federations are debating age-criteria for norm tournaments, now that ten-year-olds are routinely breaking barriers that once belonged to teenagers.
Bodhana’s road to Liverpool
Born in Harrow, North London, Bodhana picked up the pieces for the first time at age five when pandemic lockdowns replaced schoolyards with chess boards. Family members recall blitz games in the living-room streamed over Zoom, the little strategist racing between kitchen snacks and tactical combinations.
By the time classrooms reopened, she had devoured opening manuals and earned under-8 national titles. Charity programmes—largely the brainchild of International Master Malcolm Pein—provided a ladder of opportunities, bankrolling coaching and travel from county matches to open internationals.
Still climbing: titles ahead
Although she has cracked the grandmaster barrier on the scoreboard, full GM status still lies ahead. The formal accolade demands a combination of ratings peaks and three qualifying norms—standard tournaments where she bests other titled players under classical time controls. For now, her freshly upgraded Woman International Master badge sits proudly beside a growing stack of trophies, the next set already on pre-order.
Watch this space
Whether she’ll break age-records on the road to full grandmaster status is now an open wager. One thing is certain: Bodhana Sivanandan has turned a single game in a Liverpool hall into history, reminding the world that genius has no age brackets.
Liverpool Holds Its Breath as a Nine-Year-Old Wizard Takes the Stage
A Chess Hall Transforms into Wonderland
Gilded chandeliers, worn parquet floor, and the hushed tension of an arena ready to crown kings and queens—on 7 August 2025, St George’s Hall in Liverpool traded concertos for clock-slapping rooks and pawns. Yet the most surprising piece on any board today is barely tall enough to rest her elbows on the table: 9-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan.
- A slight frame draped in a navy hoodie
- Hair tied back in a simple ponytail
- Eyes flicking across sixty-four squares with laser precision
Quiet Brilliance Speaks Louder Than Cheers
Veteran commentator Malcolm Pein, seated yards away, leans forward to BBC cameras between rounds.“She sits like carved alabaster,” he says. “No boasting, no fidgeting—just moves that slice through decades of theory.”
Pein lowers his voice, as if sharing a secret he’s waited a lifetime to tell: “One day the women’s crown will fit her head. With luck, the open title will too. The girl is walking a royal road straight to grandmaster.”
The Year When Records Cracked Like Ice
December 2024: A Swiss Glacier Meets a Child
In an alpine resort outside Bern, an eight-year-old named Aswath Kaushik faced Polish Grandmaster Jacek Stopa. The mountain wind rattled windows; the boy rattled Stopa’s Sicilian setup until it collapsed. When the handshake came, clocks showed Kaushik—India-born, Singapore-raised—had become the youngest conqueror of a grandmaster ever.
Days Before That: Another Child’s Crown
Hard on his heels, Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic had seized the same benchmark just one week earlier. At 8 years 11 months, Ivanovic thought he’d hold the claim for seasons to come. The chess world barely blinked before Kaushik shaved another layer off the record.
One City, One Girl, Unlimited Horizons
Now, Liverpool’s Victorian corridors echo with a new question: Will Bodhana make December’s headlines feel like ancient history?
From every corner of the tournament hall, seasoned masters—some twice her height—glance toward her board. She meets the stares, offers a polite nod, then drops her knight onto square f3, unleashing a move the room will be replaying for years.
