I love slides about the awesome feats of young people. Especially contemporary young people! One of our goals at TGT is try, where possible, to highlight something in the childhood experiences of the people the slides about. We hope that by mentioning something of their youth, our audience will have something to hook on to from their own lived experience. The feats of contemporary young people are the best at this, obviously. It’s not hard to imagine the life of an 11-year-old British school girl if you are or have recently been, an 11-year-old British school girl.

So here we present the amazing Bodhana Sivanandan, the youngest female chess Grandmaster in history, and the incredible visual of her, with her chair boosted to reach the board, beating players playing the game far longer than she has even been alive. Yet she only began playing chess in lockdown 6 years ago.

Discuss how your students would feel in her situation and ask them whether they could be Grandmasters in 6 years time? I wonder what Bodhana would have said in 2020 if someone had asked her. Signpost them to Chess Club too, or encourage them to start one if it doesn’t exist, yet.

-Bill