11-year-old Briton broke the 38-year-old record of Judith Polgar in chess

11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest international master in the history of chess among women. This is reported by The Guardian.

This happened thanks to a successful performance at the European Club Cup, held in Montenegrin Budva.

Sivanandan broke the record of the legendary Hungarian chess player Judith Polgar, who received the title of international master at the age of 12 in 1988.

International Master (IM) is a chess title awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and is below the title of grandmaster and above the FIDE master.

To obtain the title of international master Sivanandan, it was necessary to meet the relevant standards and achieve the FIDE 2400 rating. As of October, the athlete already had two IM standards, and her official rating was 2382. And thanks to successful performances at the European Club Cup, Sivanandan overcame the mark. She lost to Russian Alexandra Goryachkina, but after that she played five games without defeats (four wins and a draw).

Sivanandan entered the top 7 youngest chess players who received the title of international master in the open category. The record belongs to the Russian Roman Shogjiev – 10 years, three months, 21 days (set in 2025).

At the end of September, the British chess player became the youngest in the history of the title of female grandmaster.