An 11-year-old self-taught girl from the United Kingdom, Bodhana Sivanandan, has set a new record in chess. She became the youngest female grandmaster (WGM) in history, and she achieved the last required result at the World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Sivanandan represented England in all 11 games on the first board and scored 8 points. That result was enough to earn the grandmaster title. By that time, her rating was already above 2300.
Before her, the youngest female grandmaster was Kateryna Lagno, and even earlier that record belonged to Hou Yifan. Both received the title at the age of 12.
Interestingly, the WGM title became just another high-profile achievement for the girl. Last year, when she was 10, she became the youngest chess player to defeat a grandmaster. And in July she received her first international master norm, and even then she became the youngest woman to achieve this.
It is worth noting that Bodhana came to chess during the coronavirus pandemic and learned to play on her own at that time. Already in July 2021, she played her first tournament at the Harrow chess club (one of the oldest and chess clubs in the United Kingdom). A year later, at the age of seven, she won all 24 games at the European School Chess Championship.
In 2023, Sivanandan became the youngest player to draw with a grandmaster in an official game. Another year later, at the age of nine, she first played for the England team at the Chess Olympiad. At that time, she became the youngest player ever to represent the country at international competitions in any sport. Interestingly, the girl continues to study at school while also traveling to international tournaments.
Earlier, Kursiv LifeStyle wrote that Kazakhstan received a FIDE award for the development of women's chess.