Her Coaches | Aliya

CHESS : COMMUNITY : COMPETITION

Coach Aliya | aliya.hermovenext@gmail.com

Aliya Saldanha-Suri is a thirteen year old who has been playing chess since kindergarten. She went to PS33 for her first three years of elementary school and joined the after school chess program there, which is when she was introduced to the game of chess and met some of her best friends, including Rose, Simone, and Indira, some of the other Her Move Next members.

Throughout the years at PS33, Aliya competed in many national tournaments with the chess team and by 2nd grade, she had reached a USCF rating of 1304. In 2nd grade, she was also a part of the film Her Move Next by Ian Phillips. For third and fourth grade, Aliya and her family moved to India, where her chess progress slowed down for a bit. From those two years, Aliya realized how important it was to have a community of chess players just like her, because being in India she had no friend who played chess, let alone girls who played, which made it really difficult for her to want to continue and improve.

After two years in India, Aliya moved to Maryland for 5th, 6th, and 7th grade, where she was able to reunite with her friends from Her Move Next. Because of this, Aliya regained her passion for chess and started working to improve her rating further. Although Aliya was not able to play in many chess tournaments in Maryland, she has been practicing for the past three years and is now working to improve her current USCF rating, which is 1412. For 8th grade, Aliya is back in New York City, but she is not yet sure what school she will be going to. Aliya has contributed to a couple of stories for Her News, including writing the character Cecilia for the book We Are Unbeatable: Tales From a Chess Tournament, writing a part of the article “Her Team” (not yet published), and she is working on more articles for Her News. Besides writing and playing chess, Aliya also likes cats, art, playing the piano, reading, and video games.