Liverpool’s St George’s Hall witnessed history in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships, and it wasn’t just about who won the title.
On Sunday, Bodhana Sivanandan, a 10-year-old from Harrow, London, became the youngest girl in history to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess. At just 10 years, 5 months, and 3 days old, she toppled experienced GM Peter Wells in a dramatic final-round game. The previous record was held by American IM Carissa Yip.
The Final Battle: Outplaying a Grandmaster
In her final-round masterpiece, Bodhana steered the game into a closed Sicilian Defense structure, calmly meeting Wells’ early pressure. She improved her position step by step, trading into a sharp middlegame where her knights and bishops sprang to life. The turning point came on move 26, when she boldly sacrificed an exchange, to capture his knight later on. On move 40, Wells made a blunder in time scramble, losing his rook and the game.
It was a win that stunned the tournament hall, not just because of her age, but because of the way she did it. Coming from what looked like a worse position, Bodhana found resource after resource until the veteran GM was forced to resign. GM Danny Gormally, commentating for the English Chess Federation, called it “some kind of magic.”
From Lockdown Learner to Record Breaker
Bodhana’s rise in chess has been nothing short of meteoric. Born in March 2015 to Indian Tamil parents from Trichy, she only started playing during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. By 2022, she was already winning European youth titles, sweeping all 24 games at the European Schools Championship in Rhodes.
In July 2025, just a month before this record-breaking win, she became the youngest player ever to earn a Woman Grandmaster norm, surpassing even the legendary Hou Yifan.
She also holds the Woman FIDE Master title, is a former world No.1 girl in her age group for blitz, and has been compared to England’s greatest players by top commentators.
Olympiad Debut Before Double Digits
At nine years old, Bodhana was the youngest person ever selected for any full England team in any sport when she played at the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Asked during that event about her chess heroes, she gave two surprising answers: former world champion José Raúl Capablanca, “because of his endgames”, and current champion Magnus Carlsen, whose footsteps she hopes to follow.
Her goal? “To become the youngest Grandmaster in the world… and one of the greatest players of all time.”
A Solid Championship Run
Bodhana’s 2025 British Championship campaign was already impressive before her historic win. Facing a field packed with titled players, she scored 5/9 with a performance rating of 2282, earning 24 rating points. Her victims included several experienced competitors, but her final-round scalp of GM Wells is the one that will go down in the history books.
Her results in Liverpool:
- Beat: WFM Kamila Hryshchenko, Michael Ashworth, GM Peter Wells
- Drew: Ilia Malinovskii, Oleg Verbytski
- Lost to: GM Gawain Jones, IM Brandon Clarke, GM Mark Hebden
For a 10-year-old in one of the toughest national championships in the world, it was a performance that would be remarkable even without the record-breaking victory.
What’s Next?
With multiple norms, international titles, and now a historic win under her belt, Bodhana is already a star in the making. At an age when most children are still learning the rules, she’s beating grandmasters, breaking records, and setting her sights on the world stage.
If her progress continues, the chess world may well look back on this moment in Liverpool as the day a future world champion truly arrived.
I’m a passionate board game enthusiast and a skilled player in chess, xiangqi and Go. Words for Attacking Chess since 2023. Ping me at Lichess for a game or chat.
