Bodhana Sivanandan, eight, England’s girl prodigy, produced a stunningly impressive performance on Friday afternoon at the European Women’s Blitz Championship in Monaco. She totalled 8.5 points out of 13, finished 15th in a field of 105, won the prize for the best junior, and was the top English player. Blitz is three minutes per player for the entire game, plus a two seconds per move increment from move one.
Sivanandan drew with Germany’s No 1 woman Elizabeth Pähtz, who is a grandmaster at open level, won or drew against several other elite women, and finished with a victory against Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova, the 2023 Women’s World Cup finalist who has qualified for the women’s world championship Candidates in Toronto.
