Two ten-year-old girls have recently conquered one of the world’s oldest board games, taking down two grandmasters in chess, men considered to be the kings of the sport.

It all started at the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool, England earlier this month. London’s Bodhana Sivanandan (10 years, 5 months, 3 days) beat 60-year old grandmaster Pete Wells to become the youngest female ever to defeat a chess grandmaster.

“She’s on course to be one of the best British players ever,” Malcolm Pein, manager of the England chess team, said in an earlier article from the BBC.

Bodhana, who started playing chess during the COVID pandemic, previously won three world championships in the under 8 age group. Now, she has a new milestone.

But Bodhana is not the only female chess player making recent headlines. A few hours after she defeated the British grandmaster in England, 10-year-old Keya Jha beat American grandmaster Bryan Smith at the Joe Yun Memorial chess tournament in Akron, Ohio.

Keya recorded the victory at the age of 10 years, nine months, and two days to become the youngest American female ever to defeat a grandmaster.

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The Ohio resident also began playing chess during the pandemic. In addition to chess, Keya is a black-belt in taekwondo as well and a top-ranked table tennis player in the state.

Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest girl to defeat a GM at just 10 years old (5 months and 3 days) in the final round of the 2025 British Chess Championships! 👏 The previous record was held by IM Carissa Yip. pic.twitter.com/xB2w2KtX2x

— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) August 10, 2025

She plans to compete in the Ohio Chess Congress competition at the end of the month and will likely have many other highlights in her future.

But for now, becoming the youngest female in America to beat a grandmaster is pretty special. She called it “a dream come true” in a recent article. Bodhana probably feels the same way.

Dreams were reached, grandmasters were vanquished, and history was made.

In a game where every move matters, two 10-year-olds are making big ones.

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And on a single day earlier this month, the queens were king.

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