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11 Years Old, England's Top Board: Bodhana Sivanandan's Extraordinary Chess Olympiad

Yesterday
13:32
3 min
Thumbnail for article: 11 Years Old, England's Top Board: Bodhana Sivanandan's Extraordinary Chess Olympiad
Bodhana Sivanandan arrived at the Chess Olympiad aged 11 and was asked to lead England from board one. She leaves Samarkand having completed the requirements for the Woman Grandmaster title—and with a second International Master norm putting her well on the way towards an even bigger title.

Playing top board for your country is supposed to be one of the toughest assignments in chess.

WIM Bodhana Sivanandan, the jewel in the crown of Team England, has just done it at 11.

And she leaves her second Chess Olympiad with another world record, a second IM norm and an extraordinary 8/11 score after playing every round on England's top board.

Two years ago in Budapest, Sivanandan made her Olympiad debut aged nine, playing on board four.

This time England put her on board one.

She responded by securing her third and final Woman Grandmaster norm, making her the youngest player ever to fulfil the requirements for the WGM title.

FIDE confirmed the achievement before the final round.

"One key milestone has already been achieved, with 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan of England securing her third and final WGM norm," FIDE said.

"In doing so, she became the youngest-ever player to fulfill the requirements for the Woman Grandmaster title."

Sivanandan set the world alight in Samarkand.
Sivanandan set the world alight in Samarkand.
Photo: Rafal Oleksiewicz/FIDE.

Sivanandan had already crossed the required 2300 rating threshold, so she has now completed the playing requirements for the title.

But she didn't stop there.

Her final Olympiad performance also earned Sivanandan her second International Master norm, according to the tournament's official results server.

That puts the 11-year-old well on the way towards the considerably tougher IM title.

Last October, she beat her first world champion, downing GM Mariya Muzychuk at the European Club Cup in Rhodes, Greece.

Sivanandan secured her first IM norm only in July at the Dole Open in France, when she became the youngest girl ever to achieve one, breaking an age record previously held by GM Judit Polgar.

In August, Sivanandan beat GM Ameet Ghasi in specatacular fashion on her way to becoming the youngest British Women's Champion in history.

Players normally need three qualifying norms plus a rating of at least 2400 to become an International Master. Sivanandan now has two of those norms and is rapidly closing in on the rating requirement.

Sivanandan's score was hugely impressive, but she still has some way to match England's best. WIM Jana Hartston scored 9/11 to win silver at the 7th Women's Chess Olympiad in Haifa, 1976. Hartston won silver again two years later.

Despite her obvious talent, Sivanandan has struggled, like many English juniors, to get the support she needs to compete on the world stage.

However, in recent years she has been the beneficiary of vital finding from the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport's elite chess programme, via the English Chess Federation.

Sivanandan also has support from the The Chess Trust Accelerator Programme and the John Robinson Youth Chess Trust and from private and corporate sponsors such as the biotech company e-therapeutics and from Evren Üçok, a prominent billionaire investor who funds a select circle of the world's most promising global youth chess talents.