11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan scores her first IM norm

An insane performance by the 11-year-old Bodhana Sivananda. The youngster scored her first IM norm and 2nd WGM norm at the Dole Open 2026 in France. Born on 7th of March 2015, Bodhana is just 11 years and 4 months old!

Enroute to her success, Bodhana also beat the first 2600+ rated opponent of her chess career - Marc Andria Maurizzi. She thereby became the youngest ever girl in the sport to beat a 2600+ rated player.

Bodhana also drew her games against strong opponents like GM Maxim Rodshtein (2600) and GM Paul Velten (2490). With a score of 5.0/9 and a rating performance of 2460 Bodhana achieved her IM norm.

Before the Dole Open event there was a training camp held in Marseille from 13th to 18th of July 2026 at the Marseille Chess Club sponsored by Evren. This training camp by GM Mert and GM Pierre Laurent-Paoli along with other talents Anastassia Hnatyshyn, Marc Llari, Luca Protopopescu, Joachim Le Geay proved to be very useful for Bodhana. Bodhana is also supported by the English Chess Federation for her training.

A huge congratulations to this youngster for breaking one barrier after another! Bodhana is sure to become one of the best players in the world of chess and could very well follow the path paved by Judit Polgar! :)

Special thanks to Selim Gurcan for the information and photos.