STAAVENGER: On the opening day of Norway Chess, all 12 players posed for photos on the staircase just above the playing hall. The expressions of 11 of the 12 players were variations of bored, them just wanting to get on with it. The one exception? Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, an IM.
She was smiling throughout the photoshoot, more than happy to oblige the photographers. Ten minutes in her company and it's easy to see why she was the only smiling face at the Opening Ceremony. "(smiles) I'm generally a happy person," she tells a group of Indian journalists. She's one of the very few at the top-end of elite chess who sees the game as a means to an end but not the end in itself. "Inside, I might be upset but I'm generally happy, I feel like my life isn't dependent on these games. If I win this tournament and you tell me my life is going to change, 'no, no, it wont'."
That sort of refreshing perspective comes with the territory because Sara -- as she's known in chess circles -- has already been through a lot. First, her passport was confiscated and she wasn't allowed to leave Iran, her country of berth. She subsequently withdrew from the federation. Then came a Covid-induced lockdown. In late 2022, at the World Rapid and Blitz in Kazakhstan, she competed without the hijab, which prompted a furious backlash in her native country with authorities waiting with an arrest warrant. Six months later, Spain granted her citizenship. Since then, she's been in Marbella but during her time in Iran, the one-time child prodigy did consider giving up the game she loves.
"A lot of things have happened in life which have made me go slowly or even backwards," the 28-year-old, who has won loads of individual events in age-group events, says. When she first started playing senior chess, it was considered to be a matter of time for her to become a GM. Yet, that dream hasn't materialised. Events like these, though, have kept her motivated.
"It's probably the strongest women's tournament I have participated in," she says. "I would say in my chess career I had reached a point where I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but this tournament (has) brought some excitement."
She had reached that stage after the travel ban in 2020. "I was getting support from my people but when you cannot even travel because your own government bans you and says 'it doesn't matter, like your whole life doesn't matter because we are thinking of something else, then you will reach a point where you don't want to stay'."
After becoming a mother, she first considered the possibility of moving out of Iran. Even if what happened in Kazakhstan wasn't linked to her settling in Spain, a direct consequence of it was deciding to move out. "We wanted to emigrate because of my son and the situation that was happening in the country," she says. "It wasn't related to Kazakhstan but not going to Iran was related to that. I wanted to play for Iran and live outside and then I realised that this wasn't practical because I wouldn't be able to play in tournaments like the Olympiad and the World Cup." At first, she thought it was her fault. But when other players also left the national team, she 'realised it's not my fault'.
These days, she's keen to make up for lost time. A few days ago, she beat Lei Tingjie, China's women's World Championship runner-up in 2023.