Bodhana, Shreyas Royal make British chess history

Indian-origin chess prodigies 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan and 17-year-old Shreyas Royal made chess history over the weekend, winning the 2026 British Chess Championships.

Bodhana became Britain’s youngest-ever Women’s chess champion at the games which concluded in Coventry on Sunday. Cheered on as “Godhana” during the rounds, she clinched her title in a tense rapid-chess playoff with Ireland’s 14-year-old Trisha Kanyamarala, a promising talent in her own right.

“Unreal! Bodhana has won. She is unbelievable, a generational talent,” said Grandmaster Danny Gormally, as he wrapped his commentary for the English Chess Federation (ECF). Bodhana famously first picked up chess during the COVID pandemic lockdown when her father’s friend was going back to India and gave her a few bags, which included a chess board.

“I was interested in the pieces, so I started playing,” she said at the time. Since then, the north-west London schoolgirl has been toppling records as one of the youngest players on circuit. In the faster formats of the game, Bodhana is already the UK Open Women’s Blitz Champion and joint British Women’s Rapid Champion. Her latest win at classical format event makes it an impressive hat-trick for the 11-year-old, her only loss at the championship this weekend being to Shreyas Royal in round six.