British girl, 8, crowned best female player at blitz chess
Dec 20, 2023 20:04:48 GMT
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Post by Carl LaFong on Dec 20, 2023 20:04:48 GMT
www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/dec/20/british-girl-8-crowned-best-female-player-at-european-chess-tournament
European championship. She finished ahead of all the other females, many of whom were adults.
A British schoolgirl who made chess history after she beat a master more than 30 years her senior at an international competition got into chess “accidentally”, her father has revealed.
Bodhana Sivanandan, eight, from Harrow, north-west London, was crowned best female player at the European rapid and blitz championship in Zagreb, Croatia at the weekend.
She won 8.5/13 against a field of highly rated and experienced grandmasters, international masters and experts, and came 73rd in a round of 555 players.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Bodhana said: “I was very proud of myself when I got top girl in the European blitz.”
Bodhana’s father, Sivanandan Velayutham, said she started out “accidentally”, adding: “She’s trying her best. And it worked in favour of her [in the tournament]. So it was a good thing that happened in Zagreb when we went for the European rapid and blitz event.
“Accidentally she started chess. She was curious and interested, so I started taking her around the English Chess Federation and the people in England who play chess and support chess; they are very friendly and very supportive,” he told the Today presenter Martha Kearney.
Dominic Lawson, the president of the English Chess Federation, told the Times the performance at the speed chess event was “completely remarkable but not that surprising, because she is a phenomenon”.
In Zagreb, she delivered an impressive 5/11 result with a 2056 performance in the rapid round, but her performance in the 13-round blitz is being hailed by fellow players as phenomenal.
Bodhana beat her first international master, the England women’s coach, Lorin D’Costa, 39, in the penultimate round.
The eight-year-old also drew with the two-time Romanian champion, grandmaster Vladislav Nevednichy, 54, in the final round, and in doing so became the youngest player to avoid defeat against a grandmaster in a competitive game.
European championship. She finished ahead of all the other females, many of whom were adults.
A British schoolgirl who made chess history after she beat a master more than 30 years her senior at an international competition got into chess “accidentally”, her father has revealed.
Bodhana Sivanandan, eight, from Harrow, north-west London, was crowned best female player at the European rapid and blitz championship in Zagreb, Croatia at the weekend.
She won 8.5/13 against a field of highly rated and experienced grandmasters, international masters and experts, and came 73rd in a round of 555 players.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Bodhana said: “I was very proud of myself when I got top girl in the European blitz.”
Bodhana’s father, Sivanandan Velayutham, said she started out “accidentally”, adding: “She’s trying her best. And it worked in favour of her [in the tournament]. So it was a good thing that happened in Zagreb when we went for the European rapid and blitz event.
“Accidentally she started chess. She was curious and interested, so I started taking her around the English Chess Federation and the people in England who play chess and support chess; they are very friendly and very supportive,” he told the Today presenter Martha Kearney.
Dominic Lawson, the president of the English Chess Federation, told the Times the performance at the speed chess event was “completely remarkable but not that surprising, because she is a phenomenon”.
In Zagreb, she delivered an impressive 5/11 result with a 2056 performance in the rapid round, but her performance in the 13-round blitz is being hailed by fellow players as phenomenal.
Bodhana beat her first international master, the England women’s coach, Lorin D’Costa, 39, in the penultimate round.
The eight-year-old also drew with the two-time Romanian champion, grandmaster Vladislav Nevednichy, 54, in the final round, and in doing so became the youngest player to avoid defeat against a grandmaster in a competitive game.
