Tamil-origin chess prodigies are the flavour of the sport currently. Even as D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa continue to do India proud at the global stage, British Tamil chess sensation Bodhana Sivanandan is set to create history at the age of nine. (More Sports News)
Bodhana will become the youngest sportsperson ever to represent England internationally, when she joins the England women바카라s team at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary in September. The next youngest member of the team is over 14 years elder to her - the 23-year-old Lan Yao.
Who Is Bodhana Sivanandan?
Bodhana lives in Harrow, north-west London, and picked up the game during the Covid-19 lockdown, at the age of five. Her Tamil Nadu-born father Sivanandan accidentally introduced the kid to chess.
"When one of my dad바카라s friends was going back to India, he gave us a few bags [of possessions]. There was a chess board, and I was interested in the pieces so I started playing," a BBC report quotes Bodhana as saying.
And there has been no looking back ever since. Bodhana went on to win all three chess world championships for the under-eight age group - in the classical, rapid and blitz formats.
Her father is not sure where Bodhana gets the aptitude for chess from. "I바카라m an engineering graduate, as is my wife, but I바카라m not good at chess. I tried a couple of league games, but I was very poor," Sivanandan told the BBC.
Nevertheless, the nine-year-old has set her sights on becoming a grandmaster and winning the women바카라s world title. 바카라I바카라m so pleased to be picked for England. It바카라s a great honour and I바카라m looking forward to being part of a team,바카라 Bodhana said.
Malcolm Pein, one of the selectors who picked Bodhana for England's five-member squad, said the prodigy's place was fully justified. 바카라Bodhana바카라s success at European level includes victories over many established players and her fearless style of play and immense focus on the board has already caused a sensation,' he told the Guardian.
