9-Year-Old Azerbaijani Girl Becomes Two-Time Chess Champion in Berlin

Jerusalem, 25 February, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Baku (AZERTAC) – Sona Bashirova, a nine-year-old chess player who lives with her family in Germany, has become a two-time champion in Berlin. This is the second year in a row that the young talent has won the title of champion of the German capital.

AZERTAC reports that Sona qualified for the DSAM (German Amateur Open Championship) final, the German Under-10 Championship, and the Under-10 Girls Championship. The talented chess player did not lose a single game, scoring 4.5 points out of 5 possible, and thus became the two-time champion of Berlin.

A few days ago, she took 3rd place in the open championship for children under 10 in Berlin where she was the only female participant. Before that, she won her group in the DSAM tournament for adults in Potsdam.

Sona spent three to five hours every day preparing for the tournament. She said she was “overjoyed to be the Berlin champion again, defending her title from last year.”

Sona will travel to Karlsruhe in April to participate in the Grenke Open tournament. Here, she will have the opportunity to meet world chess stars such as Magnus Carlsen and Shahriyar Mammadyarov in real life for the first time. The young chess player will compete in Group B.