| Atousa Pourkashiyan | |||
| Country: | Iran (until 2022) United States (since 2022) | ||
| Birth Date: | 1988 5, df=yes | ||
| Birth Place: | Tehran, Iran
| ||
| Woman Grandmaster (2009) | |||
| Rating: | 2270 (March 2024) | ||
| Peakrating: | 2374 (May 2011) | ||
| Fideid: | 12502014 | ||
Atousa Pourkashiyan (Persian: آتوسا پورکاشیان; in Persian pronounced as /ɒːtuːˈsɒː puːɾkɒːʃiˈyɒːn/; born 16 May 1988) is an Iranian-American chess player. She holds the title of Woman Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded her in 2009.[1]
Pourkashiyan is seven-time Iranian women's champion (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014) and a record holder among Iranian women chess players.
She was born in Tehran.[2] Pourkashiyan won the World Youth Chess Championship of 2000 in the Girls U12 category.
In April 2010 Pourkashiyan won the Asian Women's Chess Championship in Subic Bay.[3] She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2017.
In team competitions, she has played for Iran at eight Women's Chess Olympiads (2000-2014), the Women's Asian Team Chess Championship, and the World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad.[4]
In 2023, she won an individual silver medal on Board 5 in the FIDE Women's Team Championship, helping Team USA reach the semifinals.[5]Pourkashiyan married American grandmaster and five-time US Champion Hikaru Nakamura in 2023.[6]
She was in the news alongside Sarasadat Khademalsharieh when they competed at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2022, without a hijab, amidst the Mahsa Amini protests.[7] In December 2022, she changed her federation from Iran to the United States, where she currently resides.