Bengaluru: Eight years ago, Shreyas Royal was on the verge of being deported from the UK with his family after his father’s work visa was due to expire and he did not meet the annual income requirement for renewal. The family was later informed by the Home Office that they would be allowed to remain in the UK keeping in mind Shreyas’ exceptional talent.
In 2024, Shreyas became the UK’s youngest-ever grandmaster. On Sunday, the 17-year-old won the British Chess Championship at the University of Warwick in Coventry, finishing ahead of seasoned names such as Luke McShane and nine-time champion Michael Adams.
When coronavirus was sweeping the world six years ago, Bodhana Sivanandan found a chess set among belongings a family friend gave her parents before returning to India.
On Sunday, Bodhana became the youngest-ever women’s winner at the British Championship. She is 11.
Two Indian-origin players are spelling out the future of British chess.
Bodhana has already shattered several records: she became the youngest female player to defeat a grandmaster (at 10 years and five months); the youngest-ever Woman International Master (at 10 years and 156 days); the youngest player to score a Woman Grandmaster norm (at 10); and the youngest person selected for England’s team at the 2024 Chess Olympiad.
Over the last weekend, On Sunday, she broke Elaine Pritchard’s record, who won the British women’s Championships in 1939, aged 13.
Bodhana is already the British Blitz and Rapid champion. This classical title now gives her an incredible triple crown.
On Sunday, dressed in a grey sweatshirt, jeans and a powder-pink headband, Bodhana stared down her opponent, fellow Indian-origin player and Ireland’s first woman grandmaster, Trisha Kanyamarala, through her glasses. They were locked in a Rapid playoff for the title.
Up against the clock, Bodhana, playing White, kept finding the right moves with little trouble. As White, she spurned an offer to trade queens while closing in on Black’s shaky king. Trisha resigned soon after, and Bodhana, who not too long ago needed a booster seat to reach the table, shook hands with her opponent and left the board without betraying any emotion.
“She doesn’t take her wins too seriously, nor do losses break her. At home, we make it a point not to have an extreme reaction to her results,” her father, Sivanandan, originally from Trichy, Tamil Nadu, told HT in an earlier interview.
Bodhana’s only defeat in the tournament came against Royal in the sixth round. She had earlier recorded an impressive win over grandmaster Ameet Ghasi.
After seven rounds, Royal, who was born in Bengaluru, was in sole lead with six points. He drew against Adams in the penultimate round and wrapped up the title with a final-round win over Harry Grieve.
Royal later said he had been hoping the tournament would not go to a playoff because his energy levels were running low. It didn’t come to pass.
Together with Bodhana, Royal, who has been supported by Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, shook up the century-old Championships last weekend.
Led by two Indian-origin stars, British chess is indeed entering a new era.
