European Blitz English success

[LawrenceCooper]

The top English and also top female player in the European Blitz is........Bodhana Sivanandan!

https://chess-results.com/tnr835051.asp ... 30&snr=328

https://twitter.com/IrinaBulmaga/status ... 8363382168

[Matt Mackenzie]

Excellent from her, she looks very promising!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Some of the records being set are covered in this Financial Times article by Leonard Barden (published yesterday, 18/12/2023):

Aged just eight, Bodhana Sivanandan enters chess history

The chess puzzle is rather cute (I failed to solve it).

[Matthew Turner]

Picked up by the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67770604

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I had noticed earlier, but forgot to say. She did all this while defaulting the first round?

She is off to Hastings, where she will certainly get more coverage than Shreyas Royal!

They are both in the Masters:

https://chess-results.com/tnr841689.asp ... ES&flag=30

Is this her first full classical top-level OTB event?

(Further discussion maybe best in a dedicated Hastings thread.)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Picked up by the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67770604

From that article, Lawrence Trent said on Twitter:

Bodhana Sivanandan is one of the greatest talents I've witnessed in recent memory. The maturity of her play, her sublime touch, it's truly breathtaking. I have no doubt she will be England's greatest player and most likely one of the greatest the game has ever seen.

https://twitter.com/LawrenceTrentIM/sta ... 9243208972

If she does fulfil that potential (fingers crossed) then Lawrence Trent's Tweet will get quoted forever more!

EDIT: Removed an incorrect reference to another player, the IM she beat on her way to 8.5/13.

[Nick Burrows]

From that article, Lawrence Trent (who lost on time material up in his game against her) said on Twitter:

Think that was Lorin D'Costa

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Not the first time I have mixed them up. Will correct properly later. (Apologies.)

[Jonathan Rogers]

It really is quite remarkable. Perhaps everyone here saw the video of Bodhana's match against Peter Lee (if not, click on the link in Leonard's FT column, above) but that third game which she won with Black - well, to play as instinctively and smoothly like that as black at eight years old is something else. You find yourself watching the game approvingly and you quite forget her age altogether. There is also the nice moment when she tries to discreetly whisper to Mr Lee, who plays an illegal move, that he is in check (meaning that his already lost position is about to collapse completely).

If I play her at blitz when she is aged ten, I can have a go at comparing her with Adams and McShane for you!

[LawrenceCooper]

It really is quite remarkable. Perhaps everyone here saw the video of Bodhana's match against Peter Lee (if not, click on the link in Leonard's FT column, above) but that third game which she won with Black - well, to play as instinctively and smoothly like that as black at eight years old is something else. You find yourself watching the game approvingly and you quite forget her age altogether. There is also the nice moment when she tries to discreetly whisper to Mr Lee, who plays an illegal move, that he is in check (meaning that his already lost position is about to collapse completely).

If I play her at blitz when she is aged ten, I can have a go at comparing her with Adams and McShane for you!

Round 6 in the 4NCL is a potential opportunity to pit your wits against her.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I second that description of the video of Bodhana playing Peter Lee.

Where is the comparison (I presume you [Jonathan Rogers] made) between Adams and McShane? We will need that in about 2 years time. Mickey was born in 1971. Luke in 1984. Bodhana in 2015. We need players born in the 1990s and 2000s to fill in the gap.

Bodhana has a Wikipedia article now! Created yesterday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhana_Sivanandan

The article may not last, but it (or a recreated version) will be around in future years.

[Jonathan Rogers]

It really is quite remarkable. Perhaps everyone here saw the video of Bodhana's match against Peter Lee (if not, click on the link in Leonard's FT column, above) but that third game which she won with Black - well, to play as instinctively and smoothly like that as black at eight years old is something else. You find yourself watching the game approvingly and you quite forget her age altogether. There is also the nice moment when she tries to discreetly whisper to Mr Lee, who plays an illegal move, that he is in check (meaning that his already lost position is about to collapse completely).

If I play her at blitz when she is aged ten, I can have a go at comparing her with Adams and McShane for you!

Round 6 in the 4NCL is a potential opportunity to pit your wits against her.

well, happily I am not bothered about my rating

[Jonathan Rogers]

I second that description of the video of Bodhana playing Peter Lee.

Where is the comparison (I presume you [Jonathan Rogers] made) between Adams and McShane? We will need that in about 2 years time. Mickey was born in 1971. Luke in 1984. Bodhana in 2015. We need players born in the 1990s and 2000s to fill in the gap.

Bodhana has a Wikipedia article now! Created yesterday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhana_Sivanandan

The article may not last, but it (or a recreated version) will be around in future years.

I just meant that I played Adams and McShane at blitz when they were each 10 years old - at different times of my life, of course. I was supposed to be the favourite when playing in my twenties against Luke but you can guess what happened. He was certainly stronger than Adams was at 10.

[LawrenceCooper]

I second that description of the video of Bodhana playing Peter Lee.

Where is the comparison (I presume you [Jonathan Rogers] made) between Adams and McShane? We will need that in about 2 years time. Mickey was born in 1971. Luke in 1984. Bodhana in 2015. We need players born in the 1990s and 2000s to fill in the gap.

Bodhana has a Wikipedia article now! Created yesterday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhana_Sivanandan

The article may not last, but it (or a recreated version) will be around in future years.

I just meant that I played Adams and McShane at blitz when they were each 10 years old - at different times of my life, of course. I was supposed to be the favourite when playing in my twenties against Luke but you can guess what happened. He was certainly stronger than Adams was at 10.

This reminds me that I played Luke in a blitz tournament in my back garden in 1995 so he would have been 10 or 11. From memory, I was white in some sort of quiet Modern/Pirc where I thought I was slightly better. I then blundered my h pawn and further material losses followed and he mopped up very efficiently.

This certainly wasn't his best game of the day but undoubtedly the most entertaining: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYu0RQIofmA&t=16s

[John Clarke]

Picked up by the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67770604

It also made the main TV news in New Zealand earlier this evening (our time). At full story length too - not just a quick 20-second gosh-look-at-this right at the end of the programme.