Samia was named ‘Top Girl’ in her age category in the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge after competing in the recent Terafinals and she also came first in her 13/14 year age category and third in the adult category in another recent competition.

Her mum and brother taught her to play the game aged seven and, just a year later, she won the world championship in her gender and age category in Dubai. Samia, from Year 10, said: ‘I like playing chess because it is all about problem solving. I enjoy finding out more about different strategies and challenging other people. I play in all competitions including girls only, mixed and adult competitions.

‘People from all over the country take part in the tournaments so although I do some times play games against the same people there are different challenges every single match. The fastest time I have won in is a bullet game, which lasts for just a minute, but I won in 25 seconds!

‘I train online by watching videos. From there I analyse mistakes I made in my previous games and I learn from those so I am quite analytical. I still play against my brother and mum but I tend to beat them! I balance my chess and my schoolwork and eventually I would like to become a doctor.’