An 11-year-old English player has rewritten the history books by becoming the youngest female competitor to earn the International Master title. Bodhana Sivanandan achieved this milestone at the European Club Cup in Budva, Montenegro, where she represented the English women's team She Plays To Win Lionesses. The accomplishment surpassed a benchmark set nearly four decades earlier by one of the game's all-time greats.

The English Chess Federation recognized the magnitude of the achievement, with Malcolm Pein, the organization's Director of International Chess, calling Bodhana a generational talent. He noted that her progress mirrors and even exceeds the accomplishments of her predecessor at a comparable stage. Among all players regardless of gender, Bodhana ranks as the seventh-youngest to achieve the IM title.

Bodhana's path to this record required completing three norms, the standard certification process for the title. Heading into the final round of the tournament, she had already secured two norms and needed one more decisive result. She finished the job by facing Sweden's Woman International Master Viktoria Johansson, clinching her qualification before turning 12.

Her rise to prominence began unexpectedly during the pandemic when, at age five, she discovered a chess set her father planned to discard. Within years, she progressed to international representation. In 2024, she became the youngest person ever selected to represent England in any sport when she competed at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

Before achieving her IM title, Bodhana had already accumulated several remarkable firsts. At ten years and five months, she defeated Grandmaster Peter Wells in a classical game at the British Chess Championships. She later beat French Grandmaster Marc'Andria Maurizzi, rated above 2600, making her the youngest girl to accomplish that feat. This August, she captured the British Women's Chess Championship for the first time.

With the International Master certification secured, Bodhana has already set her sights on the next mountain: the grandmaster title, chess's highest distinction. As Britain's highest-rated female player despite being several years younger than most rivals at her level, the trajectory points clearly upward.