Atousa Pourkashiyan

Atousa Pourkashiyan (born May 16, 1988, in Tehran) is an Iranian-American Woman Grandmaster (2009) and one of Asia's standout players of the 2000s-2010s. A record seven-time Iranian Women's Champion and the 2000 World Youth U12 winner, she captured the 2010 Asian Women's Championship in Subic Bay and competed in multiple Women's World Championships (2006, 2008, 2012, 2017).

She played eight Olympiads for Iran (2000-2014) and, after transferring to the U.S. federation in December 2022, helped Team USA reach the semifinals of the 2023 FIDE Women's Team Championship, earning individual silver on Board 5. In 2024 she won the XV Americas Women's Continental, qualifying for the 2025 Women's World Cup. Pourkashiyan drew international attention at the 2022 World Rapid & Blitz by competing without a hijab, and in 2023 she married American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.