New Delhi: Eleven-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan has become the youngest female player in chess history to earn the Woman Grandmaster title, with the International Chess Federation, or FIDE, confirming the milestone after the 2026 Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Sivanandan, who hails from London, secured her third and final WGM norm while representing England at the 46th Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
“I am happy to do it, but I want to keep going and keep making history as well, instead of just stopping here,” Sivanandan told FIDE in an interview on Sunday.
She has already become Britain’s youngest women’s chess champion and the youngest person to represent England internationally in any sport. At the Olympiad, Sivanandan played all 11 rounds on England’s top board, where she scored eight points.
Playing on the top board could have been daunting, but Sivanandan said she did not feel weighed down by the expectations.
“Not really, I just tried to enjoy it. It kind of felt very similar to the last one except I was playing on a different board,” she said.
She enjoys travelling for tournaments and says the game complements her education, with lessons from chess connecting to several subjects she studies at school.
“It links to loads of school subjects so it’s really useful there as well,” she said.
Her latest achievement breaks the previous record for the youngest female player to earn the Woman Grandmaster title, held by Kateryna Lagno, who achieved the WGM title at 12 years, four months.
Former women’s world champion Hou Yifan of China also earned the title at 12 and remains the youngest woman to earn the open Grandmaster (GM) title, which she achieved at 14.
Last year, Sivanandan became the youngest female player to beat a grandmaster when she defeated Peter Wells at the British Chess Championships.
Earlier this year, in July, she earned her first International Master (IM) norm at the Dole Open in France, becoming the youngest girl to achieve an IM norm. She also defeated grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi, becoming the youngest girl known to beat a player rated above 2,600.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)