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| Full name | Nilüfer İpek Çınar |
|---|---|
| Country | Turkey |
| Born | 1962 Iskenderun, Turkey |
| Title | Woman International Master |
Nilüfer Çinar Çorlulu (born Nilüfer İpek Çınar in 1962) is a Turkish Woman International Master (WIM) of chess. With nine national champion titles, she is one of the most successful female chess players in Turkey, being only second after Gülümser Öney having eleven titles, and equated in 2013 by Betül Cemre Yıldız.
Nilüfer was born 1962 in Iskenderun, southern Turkey. In the high school, she was a successful basketball player so that her teacher recommended her to attend sports academy after graduation. She got acquainted with chess quite late through a friend during her first university year at the Black Sea Technical University in Trabzon, where she studied mathematics. She soon realized that her friend did not even know the rules of chess well. The more she learnt chess, the more her lifestyle changed.
In 1984, she participated at a tournament organized by the Student Affairs Directoriate held in İnciraltı, Izmir and took the third place. The same year, Nilüfer took part at the Turkish Chess Championship and placed sixth. Getting more ambitious, she thought even about dropping out of the university in order to devote herself to chess playing completely. In 1986, she managed to win the second place at the national championship. Nilüfer took part at the 27th Chess Olympiad in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 1986 reaching in total 9½/14. Nilüfer became in 1987 Turkish champion, and repeated her success six consecutive years ıntil 1992. After her second place at the zonal tournament in Greece in 1993, she was awarded the title Woman International Master by FIDE as the first ever Turkish woman receiving this honor.
She whinges about the lack of an expert trainer in that time due to the Turkish Chess Federation's financial incapability to support her. She decided then to pause a while because there was no higher goal for her. Still in the national team, she returned to chess in 1999, and became again national champion, defending her title in two following years. She admits that in the 1980s and 1990s women's chess in Turkey was not at a high level.
Nilüfer was 21 years long member of the Turkish national team. A graduate of mathematics, she serves as a trainer and consultant of chess, mathematics and geometry as well as mental arithmetic for children of 5-14 age group in her own firm based in Ankara. Nilüfer Çınar Çorlulu plays also simultaneous chess with school children to get them interested in chess. She serves as the Turkish Chess Federation's province representative in Ankara.