Chess Prodigy aged 9 to become Youngest England Sportsperson

A nine-year-old girl will become the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport when she plays in an upcoming chess tournament.

Bodhana Sivanandan will join the England Women’s Team at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary later in 2024.

She is nearly 15 years younger than the next-youngest teammate, 23-year-old Lan Yao.

Bodhana, who is from Harrow, London, revealed: “I found out yesterday after I came back from school when my dad told me.

“I was happy. I hope I’ll do well, and I’ll get another title.”

Malcolm Pein, manager of the England chess team, said Bodhana is the most remarkable prodigy British Chess has ever seen.

He said: “It’s exciting – she’s on course to be one of the best British players ever.”

But her father Siva is baffled as to where Bodhana’s talent came from.

He told the BBC: “I’m an engineering graduate, as is my wife, but I’m not good at chess.

“I tried a couple of league games, but I was very poor.”

Bodhana began playing chess during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She explained: “When one of my dad’s friends was going back to India, he gave us a few bags [of possessions].

“There was a chess board, and I was interested in the pieces so I started playing.”

She stated that chess makes her feel “good” and helps her with “lots of other things like maths, how to calculate”.

In 2022, Bodhana won all three chess world championships in the under-eight age group – in the classical game, where a match lasts several hours, the rapid game, which lasts up to an hour, and the blitz game, which can be as short as three minutes.

Bodhana is now preparing for Hungary.

She said: “On school days I practice for around one hour every day.

“On the weekends, I usually play tournaments, but when I don’t I practice for more than an hour.”

According to Mr Pein, chess is witnessing a surge of interest among young people.

He attributes it to the lockdowns and the impact of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, which is about a gifted female chess player.

Mr Pein says he feels “very confident” that Bodhana will achieve her ultimate goal and become a grandmaster.

US-based Abhimanyu Mishra holds the record for the youngest person to reach grandmaster in 2021 when he was just 12.

But Bodhana aims to reach that title when she is 10.