| Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya | |
|---|---|
 Donaldson at the 2003 U.S. Chess Championships | |
| Full name | Elena Bronislavovna Akhmilovskaya |
| Country | United States (after 1989) Soviet Union (before 1989) |
| Born | (1957-03-11)11 March 1957 Leningrad, Soviet Union |
| Died | 18 November 2012(2012-11-18) (aged 55) Kirkland, Washington, U.S. |
| Title | Woman Grandmaster (1977) |
| Peak rating | 2435 (January 1987) |
Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya (born Elena Bronislavovna Akhmilovskaya, Russian: Елена Брониславовна Ахмыловская; 11 March 1957 – 18 November 2012) was a Soviet-born American chess player. She was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977. She won the Women Candidates' tournament in 1986 and later in the same year played a match against Maia Chiburdanidze in Sofia for the Women's World Championship title, but lost by 8½–5½.
Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya was born in Leningrad in a family where all members played chess. In 1969 the family moved to Krasnoyarsk, where she started playing chess in the local Pioneers Palace chess circle. She lived in Sochi, then in Tbilisi, Georgia from 1979 until 1988, when she abruptly eloped to the United States by marrying U.S. team captain John Donaldson at the Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece.
She lived in the Seattle area with her new husband, Georgi Orlov (himself an International Master), and their son after 1990. Her daughter from a previous marriage also lived in Seattle. She won the U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 1990 and 1994 and tied for the championship in 1993.
In 2010, she was awarded the title of FIDE Instructor. She died of brain cancer in 2012 in Kirkland, Washington.
References
- Di Felice, Gino (22 November 2017). Chess International Titleholders, 1950-2016. McFarland. ISBN 9781476671321.
- 18 ноября ушла из жизни Елена Ахмыловская Archived 2012-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Weber, Bruce (20 November 2012), "Elena Donaldson, Chess Champion in U.S.S.R. and Then U.S., Dies at 55", The New York Times
- "Donaldson-A., Elena FIDE rating card". ratings.fide.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
External links
- Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya FIDE rating history at OlimpBase.org
- Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya Women's Chess Olympiad record at OlimpBase.org
- Elena Donaldson rating and tournament record at US Chess Federation
- Elena Akhmylovskaia-Donaldson player profile and games at Chessgames.com
- Elena Akhmilovskaya chess games at 365Chess.com
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byAlexey Root | U.S. Women's Chess Champion 1990 |
Succeeded byEsther Epstein and Irina Levitina |
| Preceded byIrina Levitina | U.S. Women's Chess Champion 1993 (with Irina Levitina) and 1994 |
Succeeded byAnjelina Belakovskaia and Sharon Burtman |
- 1957 births
- 2012 deaths
- American female chess players
- American chess players
- American people of Russian descent
- Chess Woman Grandmasters
- Chess Olympiad competitors
- Chess players from Saint Petersburg
- Chess players from Seattle
- Soviet female chess players
- Soviet chess players
- Soviet emigrants to the United States
- Deaths from brain cancer in the United States
- 21st-century American women
- 20th-century American sportswomen