WCM Bodhana Sivanandan reached one other milestone this weekend. She scored the perfect results of her profession up to now, attaining her first girl worldwide grasp norm.
The European Ladies’s Championship concluded in Rhodes, Greece on Monday, ending in clear first for IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva from Azerbaijan. Her victory wasn’t the one noteworthy story popping out of the occasion.
Sivanandan, who turned 9 solely final month, has already made headlines during the last 12 months as one of many world’s best prospects with performances which might be virtually unprecedented in chess historical past. In Greece, her exceptional rise continued.
The schoolgirl from London scored the perfect results of her profession, incomes her first girl’s worldwide grasp title norm. In keeping with Chess.com’s unofficial analysis, she is probably going the youngest participant to ever rating such a norm.
Two extra norms, and a ranking of at the least 2200, are required to safe the title. Along with her efficiency in Greece, she is on monitor to turn out to be the youngest to ever obtain the WIM title. The file is held by GM Zhansaya Abdumalik who achieved the title at 11 years and 5 months in 2011.
Bodhana Sivanandan will get her 1st WIM norm at age 9!! 🥳
She performed extraordinarily stable all through the occasion towards virtually all higher-rated opponents!https://t.co/3ug6hcQEgr
📷: Jim Laga#chess #womeninchess #EWCC24 https://t.co/axjHa39qKQ pic.twitter.com/ysgGoTwq0M
— Ladies’s Chess Protection (@OnTheQueenside) April 28, 2024
Sivanandan clinched the norm as she scored 4.5 factors after 9 rounds, equal to a ranking efficiency of 2265. Ultimately, she gained 73 ranking factors and is about to interrupt the 2100 barrier for the primary time.
Her finest end result was the round-two victory vs. WIM Mariam Mkrtchyan. “Her mixture of dynamic and strategic play exhibits her distinctive depth of understanding for a nine-year-old,” Chess.com’s NM Vanessa West wrote within the event report.
Her mixture of dynamic and strategic play exhibits her distinctive depth of understanding for a nine-year-old.
—NM Vanessa West
After the sport, Sivanandan stated: “I am glad to be right here… I am attempting to win all of the video games.”
The nine-year-old additionally made spectacular attracts towards sturdy gamers corresponding to IM Lilit Mkrtchian, IM Gulnar Mammadova, and WGM Elvira Berend, all a whole lot of factors greater rated.
9-year-old WCM Bodhana Sivanandan🏴 continues with implausible play within the European Ladies’s Chess Championship 2024! Immediately she drew towards WGM Elvira Berend🇱🇺 and earns 80+ ranking factors!
After the sport, Bodhana and Elvira went to the evaluation space to trade their ideas… pic.twitter.com/hk7AaeOSwC
— European Chess Union (@ECUonline) April 27, 2024
Noteworthy can be her six-hour recreation towards her compatriot, Chess.com commentator IM Jovanka Houska, which ended with checkmate after 131 strikes—in Houska’s favor.
“Bodhana tries her finest in each event to play some good chess. I’m not positive whether or not she is totally conscious of the WIM norm, however general she loved the event at Rhodes, assembly some sturdy and skilled gamers,” her father Sivanandan Velayutham instructed Chess.com.
He explains the current progress with numerous classical chess, which she is having fun with as a lot as speedy and blitz. “She is having fun with her chess journey up to now,” he says.
In February, Bodhana achieved the third highest ranking for an eight-year-old ever, behind solely FM Faustino Oro (2140) and GM Illya Nyzhnyk (2131). The ChessKid ambassador is presently ranked second amongst gamers born in 2015 or later, behind Leonid Ivanovic, and the fourth highest rated below 10 years outdated.
Sivanandan made historical past in October when she turned England’s first world youth champion in 25 years, attaining the triple crown by successful titles in classical, speedy, and blitz. In December, she sensationally gained the ladies’s prize within the European Blitz Chess Championship.
