Diana Mirza, a 16 year-old Irish and Romanian citizen, won the Under-17 World Schools Chess Championships held in Iasi, in Western Romania, this April.

Mirza, who represented Ireland in the competition, is a transition year student from Limerick, according to Irishtimes.com. She is Ireland's first World Schools champion.

Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins congratulated her on the win.

Her parents are from Romania and her father is a chess teacher. She started playing chess when she was 5 and then attended various competitions.

“I picked up playing from there and became better and better and he brought me to competitions,” Mirza explained, quoted by Irishtimes.com.

She explained that her father’s encouragement was crucial in winning the Romania-based championship.

“I won the first game, drew the second one and then lost the third game. I thought I didn’t have any chances left, then my Dad motivated me and said I still had chances left,” she said, quoted by RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Mirza has played in the EU Junior Championships since she was 10. She won her first bronze medal at this event in 2011. A silver medal followed in 2012, and a gold one in 2013, when she became an EU champion in the Under 13 Girls category, according to Gazetaromaneasca.com. In 2016 she participated in the Baku Chess Olympiad in Azerbaijan. She also attended major world championships for juniors, such as the 2011 one in Brazil, the 2012 one in Maribor, Slovenia, in 2013 in Al-Ain, Arab Emirates, and in 2014 in South Africa.

(Photo source: Diana Mirza on Twitter)

editor@romania-insider.com