Sivanandan, 11, Is Youngest Girl to Earn IM Title

Aged just 11, Bodhana Sivanandan is the youngest girl ever to earn the International Master title. She secured her third and final norm on Friday, 23 October 2026, at the European Club Cup in Budva, Montenegro.

A 2400 rating crossed in the last round

Her live rating stood at 2399.4, just short of the 2400 the title needs. She played Black against Sweden's WIM Viktoria Johansson and won in 32 moves.

By her own account, she took an early edge and won a pawn in a gambit. Then she had to defend when Johansson went for her king. She came through, won two pieces for a rook, and the game ended in a 4-0 team win.

The road there was not smooth. She lost her first game to GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, then won two, including one over IM Olga Badelka, and drew with GM Nino Batsiashvili. She finished on 5.5/7 on board one, with a 2465 performance rating.

Polgar's 1988 mark, and a record year

The result broke Judit Polgar's female age record, set in 1988. Polgar earned her IM title at 12. At 11 years, seven months and 16 days, Sivanandan is the seventh-youngest IM in chess history, and one of only ten players to finish before turning 12.

All three norms came within about three months. In July she scored 5/9 at the Dole Open, beating 2628-rated GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi along the way. In September she played every round on England's top board at the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, scored 8/11 for her second norm, and became the youngest player ever to meet the Woman Grandmaster rules.

In August she had already become the youngest British Women's Champion, and at eight she was England's first world youth champion in 25 years, sweeping the girls' under-eight titles with a combined 33/33. "I'm happy about that but hopefully I'm able to get grandmaster soon as well," she told WCM Tallulah Roberts after the game. For a player from Harrow, already the second-highest-rated of her generation, the grandmaster title is the next goal.