Belakovskaia Chess Academy

09/27/2024

Thank you, American Chess Magazine, for publishing my article, "A Historic Journey: The American 50+ Women’s Chess Team Wins Silver at Their First World Senior Team Championship in Poland."

In this piece, I reflect on our unforgettable trip - capturing the competition, camaraderie, challenges, and triumphs along the way. It was a remarkable experience, and I hope that sharing the details and nuances will help others grasp the dynamic of the event, feel the intensity of the pressure, excitement, and ultimately the joy and gratitude we felt.

American Chess Magazine is one of the world's leading chess publications - "An award-winning print magazine that delves deeply into chess secrets and wholeheartedly celebrates our chess heroes."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "BEST OVERALL CHESS MAGAZINE"

Awarded by the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) in 2024

https://acmchess.com/

07/31/2024

Quite funny position. After Black gave Qd2-g2 + and White King moved to h4, checkmate on e7 is still inevitable.

07/14/2024

I am finally home, excited and energized by our accomplishment and celebrating success with family and friends!

On July 1-12, our USA Women 50+ Team participated in the World Senior Team Chess Championship in Krakow, Poland. It was an incredibly tough competition, where women teams faced many professional men teams. I was honored and elated to lead our Team as a Captain and the Top Board player, fighting against many formidable opponents. For example, in the 2nd round, I was paired against GM Michael Adams, who is "an English chess grandmaster and is an eight-time British Chess Champion. His highest ranking is world No. 4, achieved several times from October 2000 to October 2002. His peak Elo rating is 2761, the highest achieved by an English chess player." (Wikipedia), while in the 7th round I fought against GM Darcy Lima who is a "Brazilian chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1989 and the Grandmaster title in 1997... Lima represented Brazil eleven times in the Chess Olympiad (1988–2008)."

After 9 rounds of going through fire and water, our Team emerged as SILVER MEDALISTS, missing GOLD by a whisker (with German player blundering in a totally winning game against Estonian women), but still showing an excellent result!

Kudos and CONGRATULATIONS to my USA Women 50+ teammates at the 2024 World Senior Team Chess Championship - Beatriz Marinello, Olga Sagalchik, Natalya Tsodikova, and Ivona Jezierska - for great friendship, support, common goal, focus, determination and positive attitude.

The Team Trophy - a beautiful Chess Queen - will be proudly displayed at our Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, inspiring International students to follow their passion to new heights and great achievements in life, promoting Team Spirit, Determination and Triumph!

US Chess

Photos credit: Mark Livsh*tz/FIDE

07/14/2024

Huge CONGRATULATIONS to USA Open 50+ Team, who won GOLD at the World Senior Team Chess Championship that took place in Krakow, Poland on July 1-12!
GM Jaan Ehlvest,
GM Alexander Shabalov,
GM Melik Khachiyan,
GM Igor Novikov,
GM Alex Yermolinsky.

I propose US Chess shows respect, celebrates Senior Chess players and recognizes their continuous achievements in winning GOLD medals on multiple occasions. As such, US Chess Delegates and Executive Board shall award bonuses to the players.

It's well deserved and way overdue.

Please comment YES if you support this and make your voice heard at the Delegates Meeting.

06/06/2024

Funny checkmate. Most of the time, one has to work hard to win, but once in a while your opponent plays a careless move (like White's Nd2 in this position) and all you have to do is not to miss the opportunity :)

04/22/2024

With about 5 seconds left on my clock, I took a chance and marched forward 41... Kc4. This bravery paid off - the game continued: 42. Qa6+ Kc3 43. Qa3+ Kc4 44. Qa6+ Qb5 45. Qc8+
Kb4 46. a3+ Kxa3 47. Qf8+ Kb2 48. Qf1 Qxf1+ 49. Rxf1 c1=Q
50. Rxc1 Kxc1 0-1.

03/24/2024

What a game! Playing Black against 2223 in 3 min +2 sec increment time control.

1 b4 e5
2 Nf3 e4
3 Nd4 d5
4 a3 Nf6
5 Bb2 b6
6 Nb3 c5
7 c3 Nc6
8 d4 c4
9 Nc1 e3
10 f3 Nh5
11 g3 Bd6
12 Qc2 Qg5
13 Na2 Bf5
14 Qa4 Bd7
15 b5 Na5
16 Nb4 Nb3
17 Ra2 a5
18 Nc6 O-O
19 Kd1 Qg6
20 Ra1 Nxa1
21 Nd2 exd2
22 f4 Nb3
23 Ne5 Qb1+
0-1
White resigned • Black is victorious.

03/08/2024

Conquering Chess and Thriving in Business -

Anjelina Belakovskaia is an Associate Teaching Professor of Global Finance at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and she recently scored two significant…

03/08/2024

Humble and grateful to receive this recognition.

To be a grandmaster in chess takes dedication, patience and an understanding of the ins and outs of the game. You also have to prepare yourself for setbacks and upsets. Such is the road that Anjelina Belakovskaia followed to become a grandmaster, and that experience has informed her growth in busine...

03/08/2024

A lot of great initiatives! Women in Chess - way to go, FIDE!

One of FIDE's key areas of focus over the past five years has been introducing initiatives to encourage more women to take up chess. New events and more sponsorship for women's chess have increased, but there is more work to be done.

03/03/2024

This was a very cute game! I am playing White.
3 min game with 2 sec increments. I have a few seconds left.
35... b4 36. cxb4 Rxe3+ 37. Kxe3 axb4 38. g6 b3 39. Kd2 d4
40. Kd3 Kh8 41. Nxd4 Kg8 42. Ne6 Kh8 43. Kc3 Kg8 44. Kxb3
Kh8 45. Kc4 Kg8 46. Kd5 Kh8 47. Kd6 Kg8 48. Ke7 Kh8 49. Nf4 (White have to be careful not to stalemate the opponent. Faster was Nd4 - Nf5, but it's not easy to figure it out when flag is falling)
Kg8 50. Nd5 Kh8 51. Ke8 Kg8 52. Ne7+ Kh8 53. Nf5 Kg8 54. Ke7
Kh8 55. Nh6 gxh6 56. Kf7 h5 57. g7+ 1-0

Interesting variations:
36... axb4 37. g6 b3 38. Nc5 b2 39. Rxa3 b1.Q 40. Ra8+ 1-0
or 38... Kf8 39. Nd7+ Kg8 40. Re8 #

03/01/2024

Life is never boring and has some unpredicted twists. For many years, starting 1994, I was coming to Las Vegas to participate in The National Open Chess Championship - Las Vegas International Chess Festival and always had a blast - it was one of my favorite events.

Then, it was my kids' turn to experience Las Vegas magic over the chess board, as my priorities shifted from being a Chess Pro to Chess Mom.

In 2 days, I am flying back to Las Vegas, but now wearing yet another new hat - to attend the Fintech Meetup - "Fintech Meetup is where 4,000+ leaders from fintech, banking, payments and lending come together to shape and create the future of fintech." I look forward to this new adventure, meeting fellow FinTech minds from all over the world, to network, collaborate, share the ideas, envision and influence the future of humanity.

And who knows, at some point, I might be back to Las Vegas to play chess again - "Всё возвращается на круги своя".

https://www.fintechmeetup.com/