10-Year-Old girl wins against Muzychuk - The Underdog

by Arne Kaehler
10/24/2025 – Exactly one year ago, Robert Ris released an Underdog episode titled: 9-Year-Old Girl Defeats WIM Mariam Mkyrtchyan. Now, that same girl—Bodhana Sivanandan—is 10 years old, and once again finds herself the underdog, this time facing none other than GM Mariya Muzychuk! It appears that opponents whose names include the letters “MKYC” and “H” tend to inspire brilliancies from Bodhana. The young English prodigy is clearly on a mission to make sure that by 2026, no one will dare call her an underdog any more.
Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

The Underdog!

with IM Robert Ris

We all love stories where a vastly underrated player surprises everyone by beating a much stronger player. Fortunately, we are all human.

But how do these things happen? What are the moves that lead to success? And what can we learn from these examples for the times when we face a stronger opponent?

Dutch IM Robert Ris presents us with real-life examples of such encounters from the past month. Together with his co-host Arne Kaehler, they look at the tactics and strategies that led to the upset.

Robert Ris has authored plenty of FritzTrainers for ChessBase — these are his newest, and perfect for every "Underdog"

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

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Topics: Robert Ris, Underdog
Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.
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8/11/2025 – In the 2025 Vlissingen Open, 2117-rated Joel Van der Werf, playing Black, faced Dutch GM Erwin l’Ami, nearly 500 rating points higher, and impressively outplayed him for much of the game. Using precise, prophylactic pawn moves and harmonious piece coordination, Van der Werf steadily restricted White’s activity, expanded on the kingside, and reached a clearly superior position. However, in a critical moment on move 40, he traded his strong bishop for a knight, and the game eventually ended in a draw, a fine underdog result but one that could have been an upset win.
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Video

60m English A solid scandinavian surprise

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!