Dorsa Derakhshani

Dorsa Derakhshani
Country Iran
United States
Born (1998-04-15) 15 April 1998
Tehran, Iran
Title International Master (2016)
Woman Grandmaster (2016)
Peak rating 2405 (July 2016)

Dorsa Derakhshani (Persian: درسا درخشانی‎; born 15 April 1998) is an Iranian chess player representing the United States since September 2017.[1] She was awarded the titles Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and International Master (IM) in 2016.

Chess career

Dorsa Derakhshani won three gold medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championships, in 2012 (in the Girls U14 division),[2] 2013 and 2014 (in the Girls U16).[3] She played for the Iranian team in the women's division of the Asian Nations Cup in 2012[4] and 2014, when she was part of Iran's B team.[5]

Derakhshani also qualified for the title of FIDE Trainer in 2016[6] and is an accredited FIDE journalist.

Conflict with Iranian Chess Federation

In February 2017,[7] the Iranian Chess Federation[8] banned Derakhshani from playing for the Iran national team or playing in any tournaments in Iran for "harming national interests", after she played in the 2017 Gibraltar Chess Festival without wearing a hijab. Her 15-year-old brother Borna, who is a FIDE Master, was also banned for playing Israeli grandmaster Alexander Huzman in the first round of the same tournament. Derakhshani had previously played in several tournaments without a hijab.[9][10] In Iran, it is illegal for a woman to go out in public without wearing a hijab or another type of religious headscarf,[11] following the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Transfer to Saint Louis University

Following the ban, Derakhshani accepted a place at Saint Louis University to study biology, winning a scholarship to play in the Saint Louis University Chess Team.[12] Other notable members of the team[13] include Alejandro Ramírez, Francesco Rambaldi and Dariusz Świercz. Because of this, Derakhshani began to play for the United States of America, although Shohreh Bayat, the General Secretary of the Iran Chess Federation, has subsequently claimed that Derakhshani had only changed her Chess Federation to the United States, and that she was not officially playing for the USA chess team.[14] She played in the 2018 US Women's Chess Championship but was unsuccessful, scoring five draws and six losses to finish last.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Player transfers in 2017. FIDE.
  2. ↑ "Asian Youth Chess Championship 2012 Under 14 Girls". www.chess-results.com. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  3. ↑ Banjan, Priyadarshan (2014-11-24). "Asian Youth Championship". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  4. ↑ "Asian Nations Chess Cup 2012 – Complete Lineups". Chessdom. 2012-05-17. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  5. ↑ "Chinese men crush Vietnam, Indian women beat Iran-B" (PDF). Asian Nations Cup Bulletin. 5. 2014-05-24.
  6. ↑ Dorsa Derakhshani's FIDE card
  7. ↑ Chess prodigy moves west to play hijab-free, The Australian, October 10, 2017
  8. ↑ Iranian Chess Federation
  9. ↑ Iran bans teenage chessplayers for "harming national interests", ChessBase, 21 February 2017
  10. ↑ Mike Klein,Ousted Iranian Player: 'My Wardrobe Should Not Be Anyone's Business!', Chess.com, 28 February 2017
  11. ↑ Compulsory Hijab in Iran: There Is No Room for Appeasement, Huffington Post
  12. ↑ Saint Louis University Chess, Saint Louis University
  13. ↑ About the SLU Chess Team, Saint Louis University
  14. ↑ Chess player banned by Iran for not wearing a hijab switches to US, The Daily Telegraph, 3 October 2017
  15. ↑ Saint Louis Chess Club, Pairings & Results - 2018 Women's Championship, uschesschamps.com, April 2018
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