8-year-old schoolgirl wins best female European chess player

A British schoolgirl has emerged Europe’s top female chess player after winning a continental competition at the age of eight.

Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, northwest London, was named the best female player at the European Rapid and Blitz Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, Daily Mail reports.

Sivanandan, who began playing chess at the age of five during the COVID-19 pandemic, defeated England’s women’s coach, 39-year-old Lorin D’Costa, in the penultimate round.

She will now face two-time Romanian champion Vladislav Nevednichy, 54, in the last round.

According to Mail Online, competitors were impressed with her 5/11 outcome in the quick round, and her performance in the 13-round blitz was described as exceptional by fellow players.

Irina Bulmaga, 30, a Romanian international master and woman grandmaster who was also present at the competition, described the eight-year-old’s performance as “unbelievable,” adding, “Winning first prize among women ahead of me and a bunch of other experienced players! What a phenomenon she is!”

“Bodhana Sivanandan is one of the best talents I’ve observed in recent memory,” Chess pundit and international master, Lawrence Trent, commented on X. The maturity of her play, her wonderful touch, it’s absolutely amazing.

“I have no doubt she will be England’s best player, and very likely one of the game’s finest ever.”

The president of the English Chess Federation, Dominic Lawson, stated that the Londoner’s performance at the speed chess event was “completely remarkable but not that surprising, because she is a phenomenon.”

“It’s an extraordinary result for an eight-year-old, and something we’ve never seen in this country.

“She has an incredibly mature playing style that is strategic and patient. She has what you may call a long game.”

Bodhana is the world’s third-highest-rated classical chess player born in 2015.