Britain’s No.1 female player is just eleven years old!

British chess phenom Bodhana Sivanandan has made history by shooting to the top of the UK chess rankings after a sensational start to 2026, the English Chess Federation is pleased to report. At ten, she was the youngest female chess player to beat a grandmaster, and the youngest ever to secure a WGM norm. She is really going places. We predict there will be a Netflix documentary about her in a few years’ time.