UK
Chess ace Bodhana, 9, beats players twice her age to win title

Mike Brooke
Tue 22 October 2024 

Bodhana Sivanandan at Blenham Palace grand finals (Image: Rahil Ahmad)


A schoolgirl beat chess players twice her age to win a national title and a worldwide top ranking.

Bodhana Sivanandan is one of two school pupils from North London among the top three winners of the national 2024 Delancey UK Chess Challenge.

The nine-year-old, who attends St John Fisher Primary school in Harrow, won the Under 18s section of the contest — despite being eligible for the Under 10s.


The Under 14s champion was Stanley Badacsonyi, from Fortismere School in Muswell Hill, who won his final game on a tiebreak. Stanley has had an outstanding year, earning his FIDE Master title to boost his national and international ratings.

They were both up against 58 other competitors competitors at the Blenheim Palace grand final in Oxfordshire in five age groups, each player having got through eliminator rounds staged all over the country.

But Bodhana was up against players twice her age in the grand final and stunned the field scoring six points, giving her older competitors a real run for their money.

She’s a ‘chess legend’ who recently returned from Budapest as part of the England Ladies team at the World Olympiad, the youngest-ever player to represent Britain — then returned to London for the WR Masters, squaring up to 21-year-old World No 4 grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi.

Some 330 games were played in the grand finals, with £5,000 in prizes as well as trophies for the top three players like Bodhana and Stanley.

The competition involved 1,000 schools in 36 events all over the country with 5,000 young players taking part.