A 10-year-old girl who started playing chess five years ago has made history by defeating a grandmaster, according to the International Chess Federation.
Bodhana Sivanandan won against Peter Wells, a 60-year-old grandmaster, in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool on Aug. 10, according to a post shared on X by the federation, known as FIDE, the governing body of chess.
The win makes Bodhana the youngest female chess player in history to score a win against a grandmaster, according to the FIDE, which awards the title of grandmaster to a select group of the world's top chess players.
According to the FIDE, Bodhana was 10 years, 5 months and 3 days old when she defeated Wells on Sunday.
That put her ahead of the previous record holder, American chess player Carissa Yip, who was 10 years, 11 months and 20 days old when she defeated a grandmaster in 2019.
Bodhana, who is from the United Kingdom, started playing chess at age 5 when she was gifted a chess set, her parents told ABC News last year.
Checkmate: Chess prodigy breaks records, barriers in male-dominated gameShe learned the game of chess by watching YouTube videos and then began to compete in tournaments, first locally and then internationally.
"I really liked the pieces, especially the knight and the queen, and I wanted to use them as toys. But, my dad told me that I couldn't because then the next person who got it couldn't play," Bodhana told ABC News. "So instead, I just started playing."
Bodhana added that as she has improved, she has no fear about going against players who may be more experienced than her.
"I like to play harder opponents so if I lose, I can learn from them, and I can learn from what they are doing," she said.
Malcolm Pein, director of international chess at the English Chess Federation and an international master of chess himself, told ABC News last year that he believes Bodhana has a chance to be the greatest women's chess player of all time.
"We're sure that Bodhana will become a grandmaster one day -- we're absolutely sure of that, given her current meteoric rise," Pein said.
School crowns all-girls Chicago chess team at pep rally after big win at state championshipBodhana's mother Lakshmy Sivanandan told ABC News that outside of being a chess prodigy, her daughter is a "normal" kid with lots of interests -- including piano, violin and soccer -- and ambitions.
"In year one, she wanted to become the prime minister of the United Kingdom. And along with that, she wants to become a doctor. And before those two, she wants to become a grandmaster ... and participate in the World Championship," Sivanandan said. "So yeah, anything is possible. So we just encourage her to go forward with her dreams."
ABC News' Mason Leib contributed to this report.
