Derakhshani began traveling to international competitions and went on to win gold medals at the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Asian Junior Championships, one of the largest chess competitions for her age group on the continent.

Leaving Iran

By the time Derakhshani graduated high school in 2016, she felt like she needed to leave her home country behind.

“I thought I can actually do something with chess, I can do it as more than just a sideline,” she said. “I had already won three Asian championships, so at some point I just realized: I’m not going to be enrolled in the system in Iran. I don’t want to go to university there. I don’t want to live there.”

At age 18, Derakhshani moved to Barcelona, Spain, where she was recruited by a chess club and lived alone without her family, though her mother visited often.

She continued to compete under the oversight of the Iranian Chess Federation, an affiliation which allowed her to enter several championship cycle tournaments. But she declined to be on the national team sponsored by the government because she didn’t want to be controlled by the rules of the team, including wearing a head scarf even when she was out of Iran.