Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Dangerous Youngsters
The 2025 European Club Cup took place in Rhodes, Greece, from October 19 to 25.
The tournament was a seven-round team Swiss event. And combined top-level chess with amateur players. Strong chess club from Europe came together with many lower-ranked teams who participated for the social aspect. 2025 saw a record in participation of 122 clubs. 102 teams registered in the Open section, while 20 in the Women’s section, with a total of 800 players.
The Romanian club SuperChess won the Open section in Rhodes, while Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo in the Women’s section.
But a game attracting most attention on the first day was the one facing WFM Bodhana Sivanandan against former women’s world champion GM Mariya Muzychuk.
Sivanandan, the 10-year-old super talent from England, played board one for the team with the threatening name “She plays to win Lionesses”. And she did indeed! Bodhana didn’t just accidentally won because of some opponent’s blunder but really outplayed Muzychuk. Look at this wonderful game!!
It’s impressive the level of chess mastery that those child prodigies achieve a such an early age.
Young chess prodigies are rising every year. And Bodhana is one excellent example of that trend among girls. Sivanandan is grabbing headlines since her extraordinary performance in the U18-U8 World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships (Batumi, Georgia 2023). She won undefeated both championships in the U8 category with a perfect score 11/11!
Maybe you play chess but are unable to attend a local club. If that is your case, then join our virtual Chess.com club. On our site, we regularly play online tournaments and team matches. More than 1450 members enjoy that chance and new players join every week. For the coming months we have new tournaments scheduled waiting for players! Join now! Additionally, we have a puzzle section.
