Later this year, Bodhana Sivanandan, a resident of Harrow, in northwest London, will compete for England in the Chess Olympiad in Hungary.
The next-youngest teammate, Lan Yao, who is 23 years old, is almost 15 years older than her.
Bodhana told the news, “I found out yesterday after I came back from school, when my dad told me.” “I felt content. I’m hoping for success and a new title.”
According to England’s chess team manager Malcolm Pein, the schoolgirl is the most amazing prodigy British Chess has ever seen.
“It’s exciting – she’s on course to be one of the best British players ever,” he stated.
Siva, the father of the nine-year-old, claims he has no idea where his daughter obtained her talent.
“My wife and I both have engineering degrees, but I’m not very good at chess,” he admitted to the BBC. “I tried a couple of league games, but I was very poor.”
Bodhana acquired a pawn for the first time during the epidemic.
“My dad’s friend gave us a few bags [of belongings] when he was returning to India,” Bodhana remarked. “There was a chess board, and I was interested in the pieces so I started playing.”
She claims that playing chess helps her with “lots of other things like math, how to calculate” and that it makes her feel “good.”
