The secrets of raising an eight-year-old chess prodigy

Cameron Henderson
Fri, 22 December 2023 

Bodhana Sivanandan, aged 8, and her father Sivanandan Velayutham - Matt Writtle

In September 2020, Sivanandan Velayutham was helping to clear out a friend’s garage when he uncovered a dusty magnetic chess set. He packed the folding brown and cream board into a bag, along with a collection of old books, brought it home and thought little about it. That is, until his five-year-old daughter, Bodhana, discovered a peculiar figurine lying loose inside. “I want the horsey,” she said.

Sivanandan named the pieces one by one, before showing Bodhana a YouTube video explaining the game’s rules. “She was curious and wanted to know more,” he says simply. Three years later, Bodhana would set the world of chess ablaze.

On Saturday, December 14, she was crowned best female player at the European Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, and achieved what many are already calling the best-ever result by an under-10 girl. Totalling a remarkable 8.5/13 against an elite 555-person field, including 48 grandmasters and 50 international masters, the primary school pupil came 73rd overall, defeating her first International Master, the England women’s coach Lorin D’Costa.

By drawing with two-time Romanian champion grandmaster Vladislav Nevednichy in the final round, Bodhana became the youngest player to avoid defeat against a grandmaster in a competitive game – six days younger than when future grandmaster David Howell beat grandmaster John Nunn at the 1999 Mind Sports Olympiad.

Irina Bulmaga, 30, the Romanian international master and woman grandmaster who was also at the competition, said it was an “un­believable result” and described Bodhana as a “phenomenon”. Lawrence Trent, the chess commentator and international master, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that she is “one of the greatest talents I’ve witnessed in recent memory”, adding: “I have no doubt she will be England’s greatest player and most likely one of the greatest the game has ever seen.”

So, what does her father make of her astonishing achievement? “I’m not yet celebrating,” he says, with a wry smile on his face. “I’m happy, but the road is very long. If I jump for joy now, I think it might be an end point – I have to keep calm.” He is speaking over Zoom from his home office in Harrow, north-west London. Perched on a shelf in the background are the folding chessboard, the Hillingdon District Chess League Under 18 trophy – which Bodhana took home this year for being the best player in the competition, aged just eight – and a keyboard.

This last item comes as a surprise. Midway through last year, with Bodhana having already won international tournaments for her age group, she decided, in capricious seven-year-old fashion, that she wanted to give up chess to play piano instead. “I bought a keyboard; it all went well for four days, but after that she said she’s not keen on keyboard and she went back to chess,” her father explains, pragmatically. “All I said was: ‘You need to know what you’re doing. Whatever you do, I can support. But if you are mixing too many things, I may not be able to support you.’”

When Bodhana quickly started winning matches online, her father enrolled her at their local chess club - Matt Writtle

Listening to Sivanandan, you get the sense that he is aware of his daughter’s prodigious talent, yet wary of letting himself get carried away. “She was liking it and playing, so I kept encouraging,” he says. “Talent is one side, another side is curiosity and passion – they are very important.”

After Bodhana’s result this weekend, comparisons have inevitably been drawn with the all-time No 1 woman Judit Polgár’s international debut in the 1986 New York Open, when the then nine-year-old Hungarian won the unrated section with 7.5/8. But it wasn’t until Polgár turned 10 – two years older than Bodhana – that she defeated her first international master, the Romanian Dolfi Drimer.

Polgár and her sisters Zsuzsa – who became the Women’s World Chess Champion – and Zsófia were home-schooled to be chess prodigies by their father László Polgár, a Soviet-era educational psychologist. Portrayed by his detractors as a Dr Frankenstein, Polgár senior came up with a simple theory, that “geniuses are made, not born”, which he trialled on his daughters, exposing them to a gruelling regime of chess training and study from the age of four.

Like the Polgár sisters, Bodhana’s best results so far are in three-minute and five-minute blitzes rather than in the slower classical game. But unlike the Hungarian trio, Bodhana attends a regular Catholic primary school, her two sisters Visakha and Laksha – twins aged seven – run away when she tries to teach them chess, her father has no particular grounding in the sport, and other than not having a television at home – which Sivanandan dismisses as a “waste of time” – enjoys a remarkably ordinary childhood. “Whenever I see her alongside other kids, I don’t see any extraordinary maturity. She is still just an eight-year-old – the only difference is she plays good chess,” says Sivanandan, whose wife Lakshmy Priya is a stay-at-home mum.

After Bodhana watched more YouTube videos to teach herself how to play the game, and with the country in lockdown, she started out playing online against strangers and then in person – known as ‘over the board’ – against her father, who she quickly overtook.

Bodhana’s father is keeping her feet firmly rooted to the ground - Matt Writtle

Growing up in South India, Sivanandan learnt the basics of chess in school and played with friends. Given the 42-year-old IT manager’s mathematical aptitude (he holds a degree in mechanical engineering) you might guess he would have been somewhat miffed at losing in a game of logic to a five-year-old. But he accepted defeat graciously. “At the start, I might have won one or two games, but she soon knew the rules better than me and the tables quickly turned,” he laughs. He recalls the moment she learnt how to queen-side castle as a turning point. “I said: ‘No, you can’t do this,’ but she said: ‘Yes, you can,’” he says. “She had to show me on YouTube. Kids pick these things up very fast.”

When Bodhana quickly started winning matches online, her father enrolled her at their local chess club in Harrow in December 2020. She was spurred on by the prospect of winning trophies. “She was delighted with that, and as soon as she wins one, she wants to win the next one. It’s a small normal sports trophy, but it’s a big motivation for kids,” says her father, who describes his daughter as “shy” and “mostly silent” but “confident on the chess board”.

Sivanandan thinks his daughter was drawn to the royal associations of chess. “She likes the royal stories and family. I think that’s why she thought this looks interesting,” he says. There is a whimsical innocence to her obsession: in a video posted online by Champions Chess Tour earlier this year, Bodhana can be seen one moment playing a host of adults across multiple boards at the same time – in what’s known as a simul – the next, joyfully demonstrating that her favourite trophy is the one she can dismantle.

Sivanandan: ‘You have to remember that she is just a kid and kids can completely change.’ - Matt Writtle

Bodhana practises for 45 minutes to an hour after school every day, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays when she is either at her chess club or playing at tournaments. At weekends, she hones her skills for up to five hours each day. She also completes puzzles in chess magazines and regularly plays over the board with her two grandmaster coaches.

“You have to be in touch; you have to keep sharp,” explains her father, who describes her as “naturally self-motivated” and insists he only “slightly” pushes her. “She never says I don’t want to go,” he adds. “The only question she asks is ‘where is the tournament?’. Now she knows: the more far, the more fun.” Despite his daughter’s laser-like focus on chess, he says that “homework and school studies are the priority. She learns violin in school and she occasionally plays the piano. She’s a curious girl who wants to learn.”

In September, Bodhana became England’s first world youth chess champion in 25 years when she won the triple crown with titles in classical, rapid and blitz competitions in Georgia. Then in December, she became Joint English Women’s Blitz Champion for all age groups. Yet despite Bodhana’s remarkable achievements, her father says: “There is still loads more to learn.”

Since then, she has been coached by Jon Speelman, the former World No 4, along with other grandmasters, and announced herself on the world stage with her clean sweep of 33 games at the 2023 world under-eight girls classical, rapid and blitz championships.

Success has brought Bodhana an audience with Rishi Sunak, who invited her to Downing Street earlier this year to mark a package of government funding to support children from disadvantaged areas playing chess. She has also met one of the Polgár sisters: Zsuzsa, who Sivanandan describes as “very supportive”. That said, her favourite players are both men: current world champion Magnus Carlsen and 1920s world champion José Raúl Capablanca – “she likes his end game,” he says.

Bodhana with Rishi Sunak in the garden of 10 Downing Street - Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street

It could all go to her head, but Bodhana appears to possess an emotional maturity that far exceeds her years. “I’ve never seen her get angry when she loses,” says Sivanandan. How about her victories? “We always make sure she keeps on a humble note. We particularly mention the road is long.”

She will also patiently talk her father through her tactical decision-making when he can’t quite keep up. “If I really don’t understand, she clearly explains why she made the move and for what reason,” he says.

Comparisons will inevitably be drawn with Netflix’s hit drama The Queen’s Gambit, based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel and telling the story of Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), an American female chess prodigy who rises to the top of the sport. The series came out in October 2020, the same month Bodhana first took up chess but, ironically, Sivanandan says she hasn’t seen it and would prefer to show his daughter King Richard, the biopic of Richard Williams, the father and uncompromising tennis coach of Venus and Serena Williams.

So what is it like having a child prodigy for a daughter? Sivanandan pauses for thought. “What she has done is incredible and I am happy for her, but before I get excited and jump for joy, I will stay calm because the road is long,” he repeats yet again. “You have to remember that she is just a kid and kids can completely change.

“The next goal is simple: keep playing chess, as long as she enjoys it.”

At eight years old, Bodhana Sivanandan may yet come to dominate the world of chess. But for the time being, her father is keeping her feet firmly rooted to the ground.