The record had stood for 38 years. Set by Judit Polgar — widely considered the greatest female chess player in history — it had seemed untouchable: the youngest girl ever to defeat a grandmaster rated above 2600. Polgar was 12 years and two months old when she achieved it, in the 1988 Hungarian Championship.
Last Saturday in Aix-en-Provence, France, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Harrow, north London, named Bodhana Sivanandan walked into the Dole Trophy chess tournament and rewrote the record books.
Her opponent was Marc'Andria Maurizzi — a 19-year-old French grandmaster rated 2628, the reigning French national champion, and a former world under-20 junior champion. On paper, a mismatch. The Frenchman held the advantage for 27 moves. Then he blundered into a tactic that won his queen for inadequate compensation.
At just 11 years and four months old, Bodhana Sivanandan had defeated a 2600-rated grandmaster. Judit Polgar's 38-year record was gone.
Sivanandan also became only the fifth pre-teen in chess history to defeat a grandmaster rated above 2600 at all, joining an extraordinarily elite group: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who did it at age nine; Faustino Oro, at ten; and Roman Shogdzhiev and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, both at 11 years and one month — making Sivanandan three months older, but still only the fifth person ever in this rarefied category.
The achievement was not a flash. In Monday's third round of the same tournament, Sivanandan drew with Maxim Rodshtein, an Israeli grandmaster whose peak rating was 2710 a decade ago and whose career includes winning both the Israel Championship and the prestigious Rilton Cup in Stockholm. After six rounds in the nine-round event, Sivanandan had scored three points against a field of much higher-rated opponents.
She was also on track, as of Thursday's round, to earn her second Women's Grandmaster norm. Three norms are required to earn the title. Remarkably, she earned her first WGM norm at age ten at the same Dole Open in 2025 — itself a world age record at the time.
Bodhana Sivanandan is a student at a school in Harrow and trains as part of England's chess development pathway. Her rise through the international game has been remarkable in its speed and consistency. At an age when most children are focused on schoolwork and extracurricular activities, she is competing against — and beating — seasoned professionals who have devoted their lives to chess.
Sivanandan's achievement matters well beyond the chess world. It is a demonstration that human potential does not recognize age limits, that extraordinary talent can emerge from anywhere, and that records which seem permanent — even those set by legends — are always vulnerable to the next remarkable individual who refuses to accept what has come before as a ceiling.
Judit Polgar held her record for 38 years. It is now Bodhana Sivanandan's.
The chess world will be watching closely as she continues her development. For now, the numbers speak for themselves: youngest girl ever to defeat a 2600-rated grandmaster. One of five pre-teens in history to accomplish the feat at all. The holder of two separate world age records, at 11 years old.
Some records are made to be broken. Bodhana Sivanandan is just getting started.
