Camilla Baginskaite (; born 24 April 1967) is a Lithuanian and American

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. She was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) by FIDE in 2002.

Biography

Baginskate was born in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. Her mother is the painter Gintautėlė Laimutė Baginskienė and her father is the architect and professor Tadas Baginskas, from whom she learned chess at eight years old, visiting a chess school when she was ten. At the age of fifteen, in 1982, Baginskate became second at women's chess championship of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, behind Esther Epstein. In 1986, she was third after

Ildikó Mádl Ildikó Mádl (born 5 November 1969 in Tapolca) is a Hungary, Hungarian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Madl learned to play chess from her father. In 1978 she became a pupil of ...

and

Svetlana Prudnikova Svetlana Prudnikova (; born 18 March 1967) is a Russian- Serbian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won twice both the Russian women's championship, in 1992 and 1998, and the FR Yugoslavia women's championship, in ...

at the World Junior Girls Championship in Vilnius, her home city. She then went on to win the event the following year in

Baguio Baguio ( , , ), officially the City of Baguio (; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...

. For this achievement she received the title

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). The championship in 1987 was only her second international tournament and her first outside the Soviet Union. She won the Lithuanian Women's Chess Championship in

Panevėžys Panevėžys () is the fifth-largest List of cities in Lithuania, city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, eighth-most-populous city in the Baltic States. it occupies with 89,100 inhabitants. As defined by Eu ...

in 1992. In 1997 she moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, US. Baginskaite studied design in Lithuania and the US with a master's degree in history of art. She was

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

Alex Yermolinsky Alex Yermolinsky (; born April 11, 1958) is an American chess player. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, he is a two-time U.S. champion. Career Yermolinsky tied for first with Vladislav Vorotnikov in the Leningrad City Chess ...

. They have two children, a son and a daughter, and got to know each other at the Chess Olympiad 1996 in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

. For many years, Baginskaite played on the first board for Lithuania at the

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. She then

switched Switched may refer to: * Switched (band) Switched (previously depicted as Sw1tched) was an American nu metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. History Forming in 1999 as Sw1tch, the band played shows around Ohio and released a demo entitled ''Fu ...

to represent the U.S. team on the first board in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, played on the second board. In

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, she was on the reserve board. In 2000 she won the U.S. Women's Chess Championship jointly with Elina Groberman. Since Baginskaite won against Groberman in the playoff by 2-0, she qualified for the

Women's World Chess Championship 2001 The Women's World Chess Championship 2001 took place from November 25 to December 14, 2001, in Moscow, Russia. It was won by Zhu Chen, who beat Alexandra Kosteniuk in the final by 5 to 3. The final was tied 2–2 after the classical games and deci ...

in Moscow, where she reached the last sixteen. This was, at the time, the best result for a female U.S. chess player since the Championship was founded in 1927. She was defeated by Xu Yuhua in a tiebreak. Baginskaite competed in the

Women's World Championship The Women's World Championship was the first Women's professional wrestling world championship in the world. History Cora Livingston defeated Hazel Parker in 1906. Though the contest was for the Featherweight Championship, from that point she ...

also in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. In 2019, Baginskaite switched her national federation back to Lithuania. She won her second Women's Lithuanian Chess Championship in 2020, 28 years after her first in 1992.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baginskaite, Camilla 1967 births Living people Chess Woman Grandmasters American female chess players American chess players Lithuanian female chess players Lithuanian chess players Soviet female chess players Soviet chess players World Junior Chess Champions Chess Olympiad competitors Chess players from Vilnius Lithuanian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women 20th-century American sportswomen