I am going to fully admit that my knowledge of chess is fairly limited, beyond having played it as a kid and then again with my kids until they could beat me. I don’t truly consider it a sport, at least not technically, but given that video games are now varsity athletics at some universities, I’m willing to give chess a bit of latitude. But even that said, I’ve always found other sport like cerebral games like cubing and the spelling bee to be more interested as a spectator, perhaps because of their inherent speed and nearly ironic sense of drama.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the most recent news from the competitive chess community. That is that ten-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan from London has become the youngest person to earn the woman international master title. Earlier this month, she also became the youngest female player to beat a chess grandmaster at the 2025 British Chess Championship. There’s other first in there, including something about the first to represent Britain in an international chess tournament last year. All of this gives her a new title, woman international master, which is apparently the second highest given to a women behind woman grandmaster. I’m going to fully admit that I don’t know if there’s a difference between woman grandmaster and simply grandmaster, but regardless, it seems as if Sivanandan is quickly working her way to the top of the sport’s hierarchy. To add some context, there’s only been about 2000 grandmasters ever, at least according to what I’ve read. So she would be in rarified air. For the record, the youngest grandmaster was awarded at 12 years, four months, and 25 days. That happened in 2019. I’d be lying if I said I knew how you reach the mountain top, but there is a list of around 50 who got there before age 15. Just in case you wanted to feel bad about yourself. And to close the loop, there’s only around 40 grandmasters who are women, which makes Sivanandan’s rise that much more unique.
Beyond helping you get admission to Harvard, chess is interesting as a sporting commodity because unlike most sports, there’s nothing physical that limits young champions, but there are clearly hurdles that take time and effort. And I would imagine that even young Einstein’s need intellectual development before taking on the world’s best. So while I’m not comparing this to a 10-year-old trying to face guard Kevin Durant, age does matter.
But whether we’re talking about a young Jennifer Capriati in tennis or any number of female gymnasts at the Olympics or a teenage soccer player signing with a European Club or, yes, a 10-year-old aspiring grandmaster, what we’re talking about are prodigies. People who are achieving, well, athletic greatness long before any conceivable norms. It catches our collective gaze because it’s hard to imagine being one of the world’s best even under normal progressions. Doing so years ahead of schedule when most kids their age are focused on snapchat and school dances defies logic, and perhaps gives us some belief that nearly anything is possible.
Of course, as we’ve learned throughout history, there’s often a dirty underbelly of athletic prodigy, of people moving faster than the conveyer belt intended. Whether emotional or physical breakdown, whether it happens early or later in their lives, there’s an encyclopedia of young greats who never adapted as the years progressed. There’s a long list of reasons for that. Sometimes it’s because kids were pushed too hard too fast. Sometimes it was conditional relationships underlying the process. And sometimes it simply because teenagers often can’t manage life experience that can break the spirit of people much older. Someone once told me not to skip steps when it comes to my career. The same could apply here.
By all accounts, meaning by the little I’ve read online, Bodhana Sivanandan is well adapted and seems to love playing chess, which does seem ever so slightly less intense than the gymnastics finals at the Olympics. Her parents are engineers, not chess players, and they seem to be as surprised as everyone else. Sivanandan picked up the game during Covid, and playing makes her feel good. In fact, this all feels much more like a Disney feel good movie than a warning shot ESPN 30 for 30. So I’m hoping she makes grandmaster, and makes it before 12 years and four months to set the record. Whether or not it’s actually a sport, it’s a much needed moment to feel good.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the College of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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