Bodhana Sivanandan, an 11-year-old chess talent from England, made headlines by achieving a remarkable feat in the Dole Trophy held in Aix-en-Provence last Saturday. She defeated Marc’Andria Maurizzi, a 19-year-old grandmaster from France with a rating of 2628, marking a new world age record for a girl to defeat a grandmaster rated over 2600.

Sivanandan's victory is particularly significant as Maurizzi was the world under-20 junior champion in 2023 and is the current French champion. The match saw Maurizzi holding the advantage for the first 27 moves before falling into a tactical blunder that cost him his queen.

This victory broke the previous record held by Judit Polgar, who defeated a grandmaster at the age of 12 years and two months in 1988. At 11 years and four months, Sivanandan also became the fifth youngest pre-teen to defeat a 2600+ rated GM, joining the ranks of:

• Nodirbek Abdusattorov (9 years)
• Faustino Oro (10 years)
• Roman Shogdzhiev and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (11 years, 1 month)

Despite her stellar performance, Sivanandan faced challenges in the subsequent rounds. She lost to Benny Aizenberg, an Israeli international master, but rebounded with a strong draw against Maxim Rodshtein, the current Israel No 2.

After six rounds of the tournament, she had accumulated three points against higher-rated opponents and is on track for her second norm towards the women’s grandmaster title, following her first at age 10.

In other chess news, Gukesh Dommaraju, the reigning world champion, is struggling in his recent competitions, having finished last in the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters with a score of just 2703. He faces a crucial classical event before his upcoming world championship match against Javokhir Sindarov.

The upcoming FIDE presidential election scheduled during the 2026 Olympiad has also stirred interest, with four candidates in the running, including the controversial Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.