Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Magician Bodhana
Bodhana Sivanandan is an English girl who is recently receiving great international attention. She started attracting attention in 2023 after an amazing performance. She won the U8 World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships with a perfect score 11/11 both in rapid and blitz!! And four months later, repeated the same score in the FIDE World Cadets Championship.
In the Chess Olympiad 2024 (Budapest, Hungary) she was not only part of the English team but the youngest participant in the event!
Recently, Bodhana attracted again headlines in the chess world by becoming in July, 2025 the youngest player ever to achieve a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm, at just 10 years old.
And one month later (August, 2025) once again she stole the spotlight by earning her third and final WIM norm with a score 5/9 in the British Chess Championship. Her title came after defeating GM Peter Wells in the last round.
Moreover, the game makes Bodhana the youngest girl to ever defeat a GM in a classical tournament game.
Below the game. Bodhana miraculously escaped after mutual mistakes in the last moves when both players were under time pressure.
GM Danny Gormally, commentator for the English Chess Federation broadcast, could not refrain from exclaiming: “How on earth did she win this? She must be some kind of magician”
Bodhana’s opponent also explained later his misery: “Chess can be so cruel. Missing clear wins just 2 moves from defeat twice in three days is crazy…. It is time to attend to mental health with a very long break!”
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