Anastasia Sorokina (; born 26 January 1980 in Minsk, Soviet Union) is an Australian (ex-Belarusian)

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player, arbiter, organiser and official. She received the

FIDE title FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Woman International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(WIM) in 2001 and is an

International Arbiter In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter ...

(2002),

FIDE Trainer FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(2005) and International Organiser (2018).Anastasia Sorokina
FIDE Player Profil
www.fide.com
/ref> She was elected as

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

Vice-president (2018–2022) in the World Chess Federation and she is Chairwoman of the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess since 2022.

Chess career

Sorokina is a Women International Master (WIM) since 2001. She won the Belarus Girls' Chess Championship in her age group eight times (in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2000). She came second in the Belarus Women's Chess Championship in 1998. Sorokina represented Belarus in two

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

s in Yerevan 1996, and

Elista Elista (, ;"Большой энциклопедический словарь", под ред. А. М. Прохорова. Москва и Санкт-Петербург, 1997, стр. 1402 , ''Elst'', )The approximate pronunciation of the Cyr ...

1998. She represented Australia in the

36th Chess Olympiad The 36th Chess Olympiad (; ), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tourna ...

Calvià Calvià () is a municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is located in the southwestern part of the island of Majorca, between the Serra de Tramuntana and the Serra de Na Burgue ...

2004. Her best result was in 1998 when she scored 5.5/9 for Belarus on the reserve board. She has been an arbiter for the

s in

Bled Bled (; ,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper Carniolan regio ...

2002, Istanbul 2012,

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

2014, Baku 2016 and a number of

FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13 The FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13 was a series of six chess tournaments that formed part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2014. Veselin Topalov finished first, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov second in the overall standings. Both ...

events, the as well as several other major

tournaments. She has also worked as Chief and Deputy Chief Arbiter in some of the most famous events such as

London Chess Classic The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cove ...

Norway Chess Norway Chess is an annual closed chess tournament, typically taking place in the May to June time period every year. The first edition took place in the Stavanger area, Norway, from 7 May to 18 May 2013. The 2013 tournament had ten participants, in ...

and

Cairns Cup The Cairns Cup is an annual round robin chess tournament, founded in 2019, for the leading women's chess players held in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. The tournament was named after St Louis Chess Club co-founder and World Chess Hall o ...

. She was also Chief Arbiter in the

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship is a chess match played to determine the Women's World Chess Champion. It has been administered by FIDE since its inception in 1927, unlike the absolute World Chess Championship, which only came under FIDE's ...

in 2016, 2018 & 2023 and in the

Candidates Tournament 2022 The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2023. The tournament took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022,Youth Olympic Games Youth Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event for athletes aged 15 to 18 years old. Organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consistent with ...

, Belarus team shared the prestigious 3-4th place with the Chinese team. In the fall of 2018, Anastasia Sorokina was elected to the post of

Vice President, and Belarus won the right to host the

in Minsk in 2022. In the most recent years, she is Chair of the FIDE Commission for Women's Chess and has initiated many important FIDE Social Projects "Infinite Chess" (Chess for kids with autism spectrum disorder) and "Chess for Protection: Girls Club" chess for refugees. For both projects, special programs were developed under Sorokina's leadership and she is currently also working in social corporate responsibility field and gender equality.

Personal life

Sorokina worked as a chess coach in Australia for several years, starting in 2003. She is the niece of

Viktor Kupreichik Viktor Davidovich Kupreichik (, , ''Viktar Davydavič Kuprejčyk''; 3 July 1949 – 22 May 2017) was a Belarusian chess grandmaster. Career At the beginning of his career, he won the individual gold medal at the 15th World Student Team Chess ...

, a Belarusian chess grandmaster. Married, has daughter Evgenia.

Political exile

Following vote-rigging allegations against

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

in the

2020 Belarusian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Belarus on Sunday, 9 August 2020. Early voting began on 4 August and ran until 8 August. Incumbent Alexander Lukashenko was announced by the Central Election Commission of Belarus, Central Election Commissi ...

and the ensuing state violence against civilian protesters, Sorokina openly expressed opposition to the Lukashenko regime to the chess community and international media. Due to those statements and her public appearance in independent media, a criminal prosecution on false accusations and fabricated evidence was initiated against Sorokina in Belarus. She was forced to leave the country with her daughter and husband.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sorokina, Anastasia 1980 births Living people Australian female chess players 21st-century Australian chess players Belarusian female chess players Belarusian chess players Chess Woman International Masters Chess Olympiad competitors Belarusian emigrants to Australia Chess players from Minsk Chess arbiters