Sarasadat Khademalsharieh

Born in Tehran, Iran, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh started playing chess at the age of eight after she was introduced to the game by a classmate. Soon, she was spending six-seven hours a day studying chess. Her potential and hard work soon started to pay off, winning tournaments in Iran.
Her international success began with a victory in the Asian Under-12 Girls Championship in 2008, followed by a win in the World Under-12 Girls Championship in 2009. She continued to excel in youth competitions, winning the Asian Under-16 Girls Blitz Championship in 2012 and the World U16 Girls Blitz Championship in 2013. In 2014, she finished as the runner-up in the World Junior Girls Championship in Pune, India (where the first place went to Aleksandra Goryachkina).
In 2016, Khademalsharieh won the Iranian women's championship, confirming her place as the top female player in the country. She also qualified for the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2015–16 as a nominee by the host country (Iran), achieving her first Grandmaster norm and finishing in second place despite being the lowest-rated player in the field.
She also represented Iran in various international youth chess championships, winning several medals. Khademalsharieh played in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2017 which was also hosted by Iran. Despite the home turf advantage, she was eliminated in the first round by Sopiko Guramishvili. However, she went on to achieve impressive results in the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship and Women's World Blitz Chess Championship in 2018, where she finished as the runner-up in both competitions. She represented Iran at the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Khademalsharieh also made her views known off the chessboard. Following political unrest in Iran in January 2020, she announced her resignation from the national team but returned in May of the same year. At the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Almaty in December 2022, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh played at the tournament without a headscarf, in protest over political repression in Iran. Following the event, she left her native country.
She has become a role model for many young girls in Iran and has worked to promote chess among women in the country. In March this year, Khademalsharieh was featured on the cover of the International Women's Day edition of Elle magazine in Spain.
In 2017 she married Iranian TV presenter and businessman Ardeshir Ahmadi (32), and the pair have a son. They reside in Spain.