Yelena Dembo

Yesterday I didn't go to Kuala Langat to take my weekend rest and also trying to finish my projects. While I'm doing my projects, I also chat with Lee Kwan Pin in MSN who is regular chess player who plays in the tournament. Suddenly he brought up the topic of Yelena Dembo. Who is she? I didn't know so i did some research. Here is what i found. Source: Yelena Dembo She also wrote & published a book called Playing the Grunfeld last year. You also can find it in my chess book review blog.

She was born on December 8th, 1983 in Russia. She began to read when was 2 and 1/2 years old. At the age of 3 years and 9 months she played  for the first time in a chess tournament among boys under thirteen years old and became a rated chess-player.

When she  was 7 years old, she and her parents migrated to  Israel. There her parents opened their own private chess school. During the next nine years, they trained many young players, over 40 of which became winners and  prize-winners in junior tournaments in Israel. She was Israeli champion among the girls 5 times, including once in the category under 20 years.

She won 8 medals from World and European championships, including the gold medal in the 2002 European Rapid Championship for girls under 20 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia and, most significantly, the bronze medal in the European Women's Championship 2005!

She had played in men's and women's leagues in the following countries: Israel, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, UK, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey.

Some of her recent successes:

• A member of the Hungarian women's Olympic team  in Bled, Slovenia 2002 (second board). Finished 5th!

• 1st place in Hungarian women's championship 2003 with 7,5 points out of 9 games (there were 6 WGMs playing)!!

• Shared 1st place in the 2003 Acropolis WGM Tournament in Athens, Greece with a result of 6,5 out of 9!

• Won the silver medals in the 2003 European Women's Team Championship in Plovdiv, Bulgaria where she played on the first board. Her result was 6 out of 9!

• Received the men's International Master title on the last FIDE Congress in October 2003.

• Won the Bykova Memorial Tournament in Vladimir, Russia, in December 2004!

• Finished clear 2nd in the 2005 Acropolis WGM Tournament!

• Won the bronze medal in the 2005 European Women's Championship in Moldova!

• Finished tied for 6th place in the very strong Hamburger Schachfestival, making a GM norm in the process with a performance of over 2600!

• Tied for 10th place in the huge open of Cappelle la Grande 2006 with 6.5/9, among almost 100 GMs!

• Tied for 3rd place in the 2006 European Women's Championship in Turkey!

• Tied for 3rd place in the 2007 Mediterranean Championships and won the Women's title!

She works as a chess coach. Her parents and her created a chess academy and have had more than 100 students from 30+ countries (Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Hungary, UK, USA, Canada, Israel, China, India, Malaysia, Brunei, Syria, Kuwait, Ireland etc). The level of our students ranges from unrated till 2500.

She's also a chess journalist & write articles and annotate games in Austrian, German, Czech, Hungarian, Greek and Russian chess magazines. She has more than 120 games published in the famous Yugoslav publication "Chess Informant" with her analysis and novelties. One can also find several of her games in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings.

In the end of 2003, she moved to Athens, Greece where on May 12th, 2004 she married to FM Sotiris Logothetis and also an international chess arbiter.

You can read the rest of her profiles in here.