England's 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan sets new chess world age record with IM result

England’s 11-year-old talent Bodhana Sivanandan fought her way to another world age record last Saturday. Sivanandan ended the Dole Trophy in Aix-en-Provence, France, with a historic first international master result.

Judit Polgar, the all-time No 1 woman, achieved her first IM norm in April 1988 in the International B section of the New York Open at 11 years and nine months. Sivanandan had a harder route to beating Polgar’s age record by almost five months.

After her first-round win against the reigning French champion, Marc’Andria Maurizzi, she slipped to 2/5, against opposition that included two more grandmasters and an IM, before producing a late surge in the last four rounds.

The previous youngest to beat a 2600+ opponent was not Polgar but the all-time No 2 woman, Hou Yifan, who defeated Nikita Vitiugov at Aeroflot Moscow 2007 when aged 12 years and 11 months. Polgar’s win was against the GM Lajos Portisch’s nephew Gabor Portisch.

Sivanandan’s ninth and final round game, against the rising US international master Samrug Narayanan, proved to be an epic draw. A queen’s pawn opening developed into a marathon rook and minor piece ending where the 11-year-old was on the defensive. At one point the IM had a difficult win, but missed it. It was a long, grinding encounter which took 99 moves and six hours to complete. At the end, they were the last players out of 150 boards to remain in the tournament hall.

The minimum performance rating for an IM norm is 2450 and, Sivanandan performed at 2463 against a 2420 field. She also surpassed the 2400 requirement for her second women’s grandmaster norm. The organisers remembered to give her two norm certificates.

A third WGM norm before age 12 years and four months would give Sivanandan the WGM title, breaking the age record set by Russia’s Kateryna Lagno.

Further record opportunities could lie ahead this weekend and in September, when Sivanandan competes in the British Championship in Coventry, then plays in the England women’s team of five at the 200-nation Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

An intriguing question is how Sivanandan improved in the space of a few weeks from a disappointing sub-2200 performance in the European Women’s Championship at Batumi, Georgia. In that event she had losing positions in nine of her 11 games, although thanks to her own ingenuity and errors by her opponents she ended up with 5.5/11. Her performance level improved nearly 300 Fide points between Batumi and the Dole Open.

Her father, Sivanandan Velayutham, said that her online coach was unavailable during this period, while she also had end-of-term school activities and a French and maths competition.

The explanation is likely a phenomenon observed by Professor Arpad Elo – he of the Elo rating system – in his seminal work The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present. Elo claimed that improvement among young talents occurs more often in a series of quantum jumps, followed by periods of consolidation and partial retracement, rather than in a straight line.

Currently, Sivanandan receives limited support for coaching and tournament expenses from Evren Ucok, a wealthy Turkish investor whose main interest is naturally his country’s own rising star, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, 15. Erdogmus recently became the world’s youngest ever 2700-rated player.

Sivanandan is clearly England’s outstanding junior prospect, and as such she merits priority when funds from the government’s new £250,000 a year grant for elite chess are allocated.

She was personally invited to 11 Downing Street before the Supporting Elite Chess Fund was launched in April by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, while the announcement itself refers to “improving inclusivity” and “creating and sustaining a pipeline of new female talent”.

Fide has announced that the 2026 world championship match between Gukesh Dommaraju, the Indian title holder, and Javokhir Sindarov, the Uzbek challenger, will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 25 November to 15 December. The participants will both be 20 at the start of the match, although Sindarov will turn 21 on 8 December, which will make it the youngest world championship encounter since title matches started in 1886.

It could also turn out among the most one-sided contests in championship history. Gukesh’s form this year has been dreadful, with poor results in Wijk aan Zee and Prague followed by outright last in Oslo and his home city, Chennai, where he drew four games and lost three. He has dropped to 30th place in the live ratings and to 26th in Fide’s July monthly list.

Meanwhile, Sindarov, who won the Candidates impressively in Cyprus to become the official challenger, continued his vintage form on Monday when he defeated the world No 3, Hikaru Nakamura, in a brilliant 22-move miniature at the USA v Uzbekistan rapid and blitz match in Miami. USA won the match 14-10.

The annual British championships start at the University of Warwick on Saturday. Michael Adams, the holder, is aiming for his 10th national title, equalling Jonathan Penrose’s record, while Sivanandan will aim to become the youngest ever British Women’s Champion. There is a record entry of more than 1,750 competitors across all sections, although this includes many who are also playing rapid and blitz sections.