10-Year-Old Chess Prodigy Keeps Making History

A 10-year-old girl from London has stunned the chess world by becoming the youngest to earn the woman international master title—just months after making history as the youngest-ever female to defeat a grandmaster. Bodhana Sivanandan's chess journey began during the pandemic lockdown, when she discovered a chessboard among a friend's donated toys, per the BBC. There's no known trace of chess skills anywhere in her family tree, yet Bodhana quickly distinguished herself. By age nine, she was representing England internationally, possibly the youngest person to do so in any sport.

Earlier this month, she broke ground as the youngest female to defeat a grandmaster, besting 60-year-old Peter Wells at the 2025 British Chess Championship. And now, she's earned the woman international master title, a distinction just one step shy of the top women's rank in chess. Malcolm Payne, a chess master and advocate for the game in schools, believes Bodhana "could easily become the women's world champion, or maybe the overall world champion." For now, Bodhana—a modest player who credits the game with sharpening her math skills and her ability to calculate—remains set on becoming a lifelong grandmaster, the highest title in chess. And she's "on course" to meet the goal, says Payne.