In August 2023, the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced that it would be funding chess in the UK with a total of £1 million over the next two years. In particular, the money will be used to promote chess among young people, especially in disadvantaged areas. However, top-level chess is also to receive additional funding in order to bring British top athletes back to the top of the world rankings.
There is plenty of talent in Great Britain, as Bodhana Sivanandan’s result at the recent Rapid and Blitz Championships in Zagreb proved. In the rapid tournament, she started as the 336th seed and finished 244th out of 437 participants with 5 points after 11 rounds.
Her performance in the blitz tournament was even more impressive. Bodhana Sivanandan was the 328th seed and, with 8 points after 13 rounds, out of the 555 participants she finished in 73rd place and was the best female participant in the tournament. Bodhana Sivanandan is only eight years old!
In the course of the tournament, Bodhana Sivanandan defeated the coach of the English women’s team, Lorin D’Costa, and finished with a draw against the Romanian grandmaster Vladislav Nevednichy.
With her result, she outscored the reigning junior world champion Marc’andria Maurizzi from France, who finished 85th, a half point behind.
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| 70 | 134 | FM | Milekic, Daniel | SRB | 2231 | 8,5 | 0 | 89,5 | 95 | 7 | 8 | ||
| 71 | 137 | IM | Reprintsev, Alexander | S65 | UKR | 2229 | 8,5 | 0 | 89,5 | 95 | 6 | 8 | |
| 72 | 181 | IM | Jusic, Zdenko | CRO | 2169 | 8,5 | 0 | 87,5 | 92,5 | 7 | 8 | ||
| 73 | 328 | WCM | Sivanandan, Bodhana | U12 | ENG | 1944 | 8,5 | 0 | 86,5 | 95 | 6 | 8 | |
| 74 | 112 | Kahleys, Kevin | GER | 2272 | 8,5 | 0 | 86,5 | 91,5 | 6 | 8 | |||
| 75 | 94 | IM | Alienkin, Aleksander | BEL | 2316 | 8,5 | 0 | 86 | 92 | 6 | 7 | ||
| 76 | 45 | IM | Peyrer, Konstantin | U20 | AUT | 2470 | 8,5 | 0 | 86 | 91 | 7 | 8 | |
| 77 | 279 | Galuszka, Tomasz | POL | 2008 | 8,5 | 0 | 86 | 90,5 | 6 | 8 | |||
| 78 | 84 | FM | Olenik Campa, Rudi | U16 | SLO | 2344 | 8,5 | 0 | 86 | 90,5 | 6 | 7 | |
| 79 | 132 | IM | Levacic, Patrick | CRO | 2234 | 8,5 | 0 | 85,5 | 91 | 7 | 7 | ||
| 80 | 312 | CM | Golubovic, Erik | U12 | CRO | 1969 | 8,5 | 0 | 85 | 89,5 | 7 | 8 | |
| 81 | 83 | IM | Veiga, Jose Francisco R P Neves | U20 | POR | 2344 | 8 | 0 | 103 | 108,5 | 7 | 7 | |
| 82 | 80 | FM | Papasimakopoulos, Alexandros | GRE | 2351 | 8 | 0 | 102,5 | 108 | 6 | 7 | ||
| 83 | 31 | IM | Maksimovic, Bojan | BIH | 2527 | 8 | 0 | 100,5 | 106 | 7 | 7 | ||
| 84 | 157 | FM | Lavrencic, Matic | U16 | SLO | 2190 | 8 | 0 | 99,5 | 105,5 | 6 | 6 | |
| 85 | 59 | GM | Maurizzi, Marc`andria | U16 | FRA | 2417 | 8 | 0 | 99 | 105,5 | 7 | 7 |
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Bodhana Sivanandan has already made headlines in England and is regarded as one of the country’s biggest talents. This summer, she, her parents and another great talent, 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, were invited by the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to his official residence at 10 Downing Street.
The pupil, who attends St John Fisher Primary School, Harrow, in north-west London, began to play chess by chance three years ago after she discovered a chess set in a friend’s bag and became interested in the game. It was the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Chess turned out to be a welcome distraction during the lockdown.
By March 2022, Bodhana Sivanandan was so good that she won the silver medal in the U8 girls’ group at the European Youth Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships. At the school championships in Rhodes in May 2022, she won all the games in her age group and three gold medals. In August 2022, Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest ever participant to play in a tournament at the British National Championships in Torquay.
