Yelena Dembo (born December 8, 1983) is a Greek
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, who holds the titles of
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 ...
and
Woman Grandmaster. She is also a chess teacher and author.
Family background
Dembo was born on December 8, 1983, in
Penza
Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...
, Russia. She first began to read when she was two and a half years old and at the age of three years and nine months, played for the first time in a
chess tournament
A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...
among boys under twelve, enabling her to become a rated chess-player.
Dembo's mother Nadezhda Fokina is a
USSR Master of Sports in chess, a linguist, chess journalist and trainer. In the past she won gold and silver medals in the
USSR Chess Championships and was Russian Champion at 'Under 20' level in 1967. She also played for Israel at the 1992
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 ...
in
Manila
Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...
, Philippines. Dembo's father is a professional pianist, who graduated from Leningrad Academy of Music, but is also a chess trainer, journalist and psychologist. He has been her trainer ever since she was three years old.
When she was seven years old her family emigrated to
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. She was Israeli girls' champion five times, including once in the 'Under 20' category.
Chess and coaching career
Much of her time is spent working as a chess coach. Her parents created a chess academy.
While living in Hungary between 2001 and 2003, she won the
Hungarian Women's Championship. She became a
woman grandmaster (WGM) when she was seventeen years old, and an
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 ...
(IM) at age nineteen. At the end of 2003 she moved to Athens, Greece, where she married Sotiris Logothetis in 2004.
She has eight medals from World and European championships, including the 2002 European Rapid Championship gold medal for girls 'Under 20', gained in
Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; #Name, see below for other names) is the List of cities in Serbia, second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannoni ...
and, most significantly, the bronze medal from the Women's
European Individual Chess Championship
The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis.
Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's) ...
(held Moldova, 2005). At the 2008
EU Individual Open Chess Championship held in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, she shared the prize for 'highest placed woman' with
Jovanka Houska and
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant.
Dembo has participated in men's and women's leagues in the following countries: Israel, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, UK, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. At Olympiads and at the
European Team Chess Championship
The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
s, she has represented both Hungary and Greece.
Books
She is also a writer on chess and has produced the following English-language books for the publisher
Everyman Chess:
*''The Very Unusual Book About Chess''
*''Conversation with a Professional Trainer - Methods of Positional Play''
*''Play the Grünfeld'', .
* ''Fighting the Anti-King's Indians: How to Handle White's Tricky Ways of Avoiding the Main Lines'', 2008,
References
External links
*
*
Yelena Dembogames at 365Chess.com
Yelena Dembo Interview on LatestChess 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dembo, Yelena
1983 births
Living people
Chess International Masters
Chess Woman Grandmasters
Israeli female chess players
Israeli chess players
Hungarian female chess players
Hungarian chess players
Greek female chess players
Greek chess players
Jewish chess players
Greek chess writers
Chess coaches
Russian women writers
Jewish women writers
Female sports coaches
Sportspeople from Penza
Soviet emigrants to Israel
Chess Olympiad competitors
21st-century Hungarian sportswomen
21st-century Greek sportswomen
21st-century Israeli sportswomen