Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, who needed just a few rating points to qualify for an open international master title and to break Judit Polgar’s world age record, went very close to a draw against the former world title challenger GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in round one of this week’s European Club Cup, then outplayed her IM opponent in round three to take her rating to 2399.4 against the 2400 needed. In her next game, she drew from a winning position against GM Nino Batsiashvili, rated 2426.
Sivanandan has thus already joined the 10 youngest 2400-rated players of all time, who include the new Russian star Roman Shogdzhiev, the world No 5, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Argentina’s Faustino Oro, and Turkey’s Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
If Sivanandan wins her final round game against a 2034-rated opponent on Friday afternoon, which will be shown live on lichess, starting at 1pm BST, she will also achieve her third and final international master norm and with it a historic title, breaking Judit Polgar’s female world age record from 38 years ago and joining the 10 youngest IMs of all time.
Shogdzhiev, like Sivanandan, was born in 2015, and is clearly being groomed as the heir apparent to Soviet legends Mikhail Botvinnik, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.
For several years now his team of coaches led by the experienced GM Evgeny Tomashevsky have organised periodic blitz tournaments in Moscow where the youngster could hone his speed skills against strong rivals.
Shogdzhiev’s final record-breaking IM norm was organised at a so-called norm factory in Serbia, but he has since then registered two of the three required grandmaster norms in the Asian Championship in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and more recently in the Serbian League. Now he requires just one more norm and a 2500 rating to capture Abhimanyu Mishra’s world age record as the youngest ever grandmaster. He could easily do it before his 12th birthday in February 2027.
Pride of place in this week’s column would otherwise go to IM Richard Pert, who scored a career-best result when he defeated GM Jorden van Foreest, rated 2716 and No 24 in the world, in the Cheddleton Savills Catering v SuperChess Romania round three match in the European Club Cup in Budva, Montenegro.
Pert, 45, an ECF national chess coach, is on a roll, with a 6/6 total before Friday’s final round. Richard’s twin brother, Nicholas, is a grandmaster of long standing, and his children Max and Nina both have Fide titles.
The Dutchman, who famously won Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee in 2021 and played No 2 in the SuperChess team behind Abdusattorov, opened with the experimental 2…h6 and 4…a6 but was still comfortably level at move 24 when his blunder 24…Rd6??, instead of 24…Rd5, instantly lost a piece to 25 a4. He resigned immediately, as 25…Nd4 allows 26 Bb4 skewering Black’s rooks. Pert scored another speedy win in round five of the European Club Cup.
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Cheddleton Savills Catering have been a team revelation, after an opening round in Budva saw two of England’s other teams defeated 6-0. Seeded only 16th, Cheddleton have won five of their six matches by wide margins and now face the Israeli champions Rishon LeZion, whose top board is the former world title challenger Boris Gelfand, in Friday’s final round, with an outside chance for a medal.
The London Chess Classic returns next month, from 25 November to 4 December. Full details on how to enter, and details on who is already competing, are here.
The US Championship at Saint Louis went to a rapid and blitz playoff on Thursday night after Fabiano Caruana, the world No 3 and defending champion, caught up with the world No 6, Wesley So, in the final round. So won the playoff 1.5-0.5. He stood better in both games, but Caruana narrowly escaped defeat in the first.
So had led by a point before round 11 and faced the tailender Samuel Sevian, who had a favourable lifetime score against the former Filipino and said after winning the game: “He is really good in setting tricks in shorter time controls, but in classical I kind of figure out his little ideas.”
Final leading US Championships scores: Open So (playoff winner) and Caruana 7/11, Jeffery Xiong and Grigory Oparin 6.5, Andy Woodward 6, Mishra, Levon Aronian and Awonder Liang 5.5. Hans Niemann finished joint 10th out of 12 with 4/11.
Women Rachael Li 8.5/11, Alice Lee 8, Irina Krush 7.5. The holder, Carissa Yip, finished equal seventh with 4.5. Li, 16, is the youngest first-time champion although Krush, who debuted at 11, was 14 when she won the first of her eight US titles in 1998.
4047: 1 Qh6+ Ke7 2 f6+ Ke8 3 Qxf8+! Kxf8 4 Rh8 mate.
