A 17-year-old Romanian girl has become a chess world champion. The Ireland press has called her the “teenage chess queen”. Diana Mirza who now has an Irish and Romanian citizenship was congratulated by the Ireland’s president Michael D. Higgins:
My heartfelt congratulations to Diana Mirza from Limerick on winning the World Schools Chess U17 Girls Championship.
According to gazetaromaneasca.com Diana was born in 2000 and she has started learning chess from her father who used to teach the sport in after school classes. The girl started to play with the Diana Galati club at age 9 where she started to participate in the National Championships in Iasi. Afterward, she participated in her first International Tour under the Ireland flag. The family lives in Ireland, although every year they travel to Romania.
Since the age of 10 she participated in many competitions such as the UE Junior Championship and the next year in 2011 she has won a bronze medal at the Junior EU championship. In 2012 she has won the silver, in 2013 the gold and she has become the EU champion for girls under 13 in 2013. As well, in 2013 Diana has won the Women Ireland Championship and in 2014 she has played for Ireland at the Table 1 women at the Norway Olympiad. Last year she has participated in the Baku Olympiad in Azerbaijan.
Diana is working hard to win these championships. She trains every day for a few hours and she is also coached by Gergely Szabo, who is a Romanian chess maestro. Her father, Gabriel Mirza has also won the Ireland chess championships for 6 years in a row. His son, Mark David is Ireland’s champion at the 12-year-old category.
source: gazetaromaneasca.com
positivenewsromania.com 
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