10-year-old chess prodigy becomes youngest female player to defeat grandmaster

Bodhana Sivanandan made history at the British Chess Championships. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)

A 10-year-old British girl has made chess history by becoming the youngest female player to ever beat a grandmaster.

Bodhana Sivanandan, from northwest London, defeated 60-year-old grandmaster Pete Wells in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool on Sunday.

At 10 years, five months and three days, Sivanandan broke the record set by American Carissa Yip, who was 10 years, 11 months and 20 days old when she defeated a grand master in 2019, according to the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Sivanandan has now earned woman international master status, one level below the female-exclusive woman grandmaster title; the highest title in chess is grandmaster, owned by the likes of current world chess champion Gukesh Dommaraju and world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen.

Her dad told the BBC in 2024 that “nobody at all” in their family had previously excelled at chess.

Sivanandan said she picked up the sport during the Covid pandemic when she was five, after one of her dad’s friends gifted them some toys and books.

“In one of the bags, I saw a chessboard, and I was interested in the pieces,” she told the BBC.

“I wanted to use the pieces as toys. Instead, my dad said that I could play the game, and then I started from there.”

By Matias Grez, CNN