In 1984, she participated in a tournament organized by the Student Affairs Directoriate held in İnciraltı, Izmir and took 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 university in order to devote herself to chess playing completely. In 1986, she won 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. In 1987 she became the Turkish champion, and repeated her success for six consecutive years until 1992. After her second place at the zonal tournament in Greece in 1993, she was awarded the title of Woman International Master by FIDE, as the first ever Turkish woman receiving this honor.