Eight-year-old British Hindu schoolgirl, Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow (London), scored 8.5/13 at the European blitz chess championships held in Croatia in December 2023 and was crowned best female player. In the penultimate round of the contest, Bodhana defeated 39-year-old Lorin D’Costa, who is England’s women’s coach. She then drew with 54-year-old the two-time Romanian champion Vladislav Nevednichy.
Commenting on Bodhana’s performance, British International Master, Lawrence Trent, wrote on X:
Bodhana Sivanandan is one of the greatest talents I've witnessed in recent memory. The maturity of her play, her sublime touch, it's truly breathtaking. I have no doubt she will be England's greatest player and most likely one of the greatest the game has ever seen #Chess
— Lawrence Trent (@LawrenceTrentIM) December 13, 2023
Dominic Lawson, the English Chess Federation’s president, described Bodhana as “one of the greatest talents I’ve witnessed in recent memory”.
Sivanandan Velayutham; Bodhana’s Father, explained on the BBC’s Today Programme how his daughter accidentally made her entry into chess during the pandemic, teaching herself with videos on YouTube.