Bodhana Sivanandan completed her final IM norm at the European Women’s Chess Club Cup. Bodhana became the youngest female chess player to achieve the International Master title. Sivanandan overtook Judit Polgar’s record by 7 months.

Bodhana scored 5.5 out of 7 at the European Women’s Chess Club Cup. This result was the highest by any top-board player in the tournament. Sivanandan gained 31.4 Classical points and moved up to 40th place in the women’s live rating.

Sivanandan entered the top ten youngest IMs in chess history. Bodhana achieved the title at the age of 11 years, 7 months, and 16 days. She is one month behind Javokhir Sindarov and ahead of Gukesh Dommaraju by 1 month and 23 days.

Top 10 youngest IMs in history:

# Player Age
1. 🇷🇺 Roman Shogdzhiev 10 years, 3 months, 21 days
2. 🇦🇷 Faustino Oro 10 years, 8 months, 16 days
3. 🇺🇸 Abhimanyu Mishra 10 years, 9 months, 3 days
4. 🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa R 10 years, 9 months, 19 days
5. 🇹🇷 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus 11 years, 1 month, 20 days
6. 🇺🇿 Javokhir Sindarov 11 years, 6 months, 16 days
7. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bodhana Sivanandan 11 years, 7 months, 16 days
8. 🇮🇳 Bharath Subramaniyam H 11 years, 8 months, 8 days
9. 🇮🇳 Gukesh Dommaraju 11 years, 9 months, 9 days
10. 🇷🇺 Sergey Karjakin 11 years, 11 months

Bodhana Sivanandan (2413) is England’s No. 1 female player. Sivanandan won the FIDE World Cadet Chess Championships 2023 in all three disciplines. She finished the tournament with a perfect score in Classical, Rapid, and Blitz.

Bodhana became the youngest female chess player to defeat a GM in 2025. She won over GM Peter Wells at the British Chess Championship 2025.

Credit: Rafal Oleksiewicz / FIDE