Bodhana Sivanandan's rise is unlike anything her country has ever seen.
Bodhana Sivanandan settled into her chair as she prepared for her first match of the Cambridge International Open, a high-level, Bodhana was unlike many of her competitors. To even her eyes with Samuel Gaffney, her 30-year-old opponent, her father Sivanandan Velayutham had to help her into a booster seat, her feet dangling above the ground.
As Bodhana, now 9, tells it, her introduction to chess was a coincidence born from a family friend gifting her a chess board. Pein said he believes Bodhana is able to process the game in a fashion similar to Beth Harmon, the main character of the Netflix hit "The Queen's Gambit," which is based on the 1983 American novel of the same name by Walter Tevis.
"Her rating trajectory is currently comparable and in some cases superior to that of Judit Polgár, who is the greatest female player who ever lived," said Pein. In this Jan. 16, 2005, file photo, Judit Polgar, of Hungary, contemplates a move against Ruslan Ponomariov, of The Ukraine, during their second-round chess match at the Chess Tournament, in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands."I received comments from my opponents and from other participants , 'Well, she's not so good.' 'She's lucky.' 'It's by chance.' 'I have a headache.' 'I have a stomach ache.' Whatever excuses.
"It's difficult for women in chess because sometimes, there's just not a critical class of women. It's very intimidating if you turn up to a chess club with 30 men and you're the only girl," he said.
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