Atousa Pourkashiyan

Atousha Pourkashiyan was born in Iran where she won the national championship on seven occasions (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014) and represented her homeland in eight Olympiads (2000-2014). Atousha won the 2000 World Youth Chess Championship in the Girls U12 category and was the Asian Women’s Champion in 2010. She competed in the Women’s World Chess Championship in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2017.

Atousha has represented the United States since 2022 and achieved some excellent results. She won an individual silver medal on Board 5 in the 2023 FIDE Women’s Team Championship, helping the U.S. reach the semifinals. Last year she tied with Zoey Tang for first in the Women’s Continental Championship held in the Dominican Republic, qualifying for the FIDE Women’s World Cup. This will be Atousha’s third U.S. Women’s Championship.

Atousha and her husband Hikaru Nakamura were participants in the 2000 World Youth Chess Championships.