Anjelina Belakovskaia

Anjelina Belakovskaia was born in Ukraine and came to the United States in 1991 with little money and knowing only a few words of English. What has followed is a classic American success story. 

Anjelina was awarded the Woman Grandmaster title in 1993 and followed this up with an impressive run in the U.S. Women’s Championship. In 1995, she won the first of her three U.S. Women’s Chess Championship titles, tying for first with Sharon Burtman.  The following year she won outright, took second in 1997 and in 1999 won for a third time. 

A three-time member of the U.S. Women’s Olympiad (1994, 1996 and 1998), Anjelina played infrequently after winning her last U.S. Women’s Championship title but in 2023 she returned to action winning the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Championship and played board one for the silver, bronze and gold medal winning U.S. entries in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 World Senior Team Championships

Away from the board Anjelina, who has a Master’s Degree in Mathematics in Finance, has taught at a number of universities, including her current position at Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University where she is an Associate Teaching Professor in Global Finance.

Anjelina achieved her peak FIDE rating of 2385 in January of 1998. She made a brief appearance in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer.