Indian origin-British chess prodigy Bodhana youngest to beat a World Champion

Dubai: British chess prodigy of Indian origin, Bodhana Sivanandan, has made history once again — this time by defeating a former world champion at just 10 years old.

The North London schoolgirl pulled off a sensational victory on Sunday at the European Club Cup in Rhodes, Greece, where she beat Grandmaster Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine, the former Women’s World Champion.

The upset is even more impressive considering that Muzychuk, 33, is ranked 13th in the world and holds a FIDE rating of 2485—280 points higher than Sivanandan’s 2205. Sivanandan’s performance was a standout in the match, despite her team, She Plays to Win Lionesses, falling 3—1 to Turkish Airlines in the first round.

Her win was lauded across the chess world. English Grandmaster Danny Gormally remarked, “She seems to be beating a GM every week now!” England’s top-ranked Grandmaster David Howell called it an “incredible win,” adding, “It’s not every day a 10-year-old defeats a GM — and a former world champion — so convincingly.” Former Women’s World Champion Susan Polgar also praised Sivanandan’s game as “impressive.”

This victory adds to an already record-breaking year for the young star. Earlier in 2025, at the British Chess Championships in Liverpool, she made headlines by defeating 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells, becoming the youngest female player ever to beat a GM — surpassing the previous record set by American Carissa Yip in 2019.

Born in London in 2015 to parents from Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, Sivanandan has been rewriting the record books with startling regularity. In 2024, she became a Woman FIDE Master (WFM), and in July 2025, she set a new milestone by becoming the youngest player ever to earn a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm — surpassing the legendary Hou Yifan, who achieved the feat at 11.

In another historic achievement, she was selected to represent England at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary in 2024, making her the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport.

Sivanandan’s meteoric rise comes as part of a new wave of English talent making their mark internationally. GM Danny Gormally noted, “English chess has been in the doldrums for many years. We’ve had good players, but now with talents like Bodhana, GM Shreyas Royal, FM Supratit Banerjee, and FM Ethan Pang, we finally have a generation that’s truly exciting. We don’t know just how strong they’ll become — but the potential is huge.”

With inputs from IANS