View source for Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya

{{short description|Soviet-born American chess player}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox chess player
| name = Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya
| image = ElenaDonaldson0301 012.jpg
| caption = Donaldson at the 2003 U.S. Chess Championships
| full_name = Elena Bronislavovna Akhmilovskaya
| country = United States (after 1989)<br>Soviet Union (before 1989)
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1957|03|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Leningrad]], Soviet Union
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2012|11|18|1957|03|11}}
| death_place = [[Kirkland, Washington]], U.S.
| title = [[Woman Grandmaster]] (1977)
| peakrating = 2435 (January 1987)
}}
'''Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya''' (born ''Elena Bronislavovna Akhmilovskaya'', {{langx|ru|Елена Брониславовна Ахмыловская}}; 11 March 1957&nbsp;– 18 November 2012) was a Soviet-born American [[chess]] player. She was awarded the title of [[Woman Grandmaster]] by [[FIDE]] in 1977.<ref name=book>{{Cite book |title=Chess International Titleholders, 1950-2016 |last=Di Felice |first=Gino |date=2017-11-22 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9781476671321}}</ref> She won the Women Candidates' tournament in 1986 and later in the same year played a match against [[Maia Chiburdanidze]] in [[Sofia]] for the [[Women's World Chess Championship 1986|Women's World Championship]] title, but lost by 8½–5½.<ref>[http://www.russiachess.org/news/all/18_noyabria_ushla_iz_zhizni_elena_akhmylovskaya/ 18 ноября ушла из жизни Елена Ахмыловская] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120232020/http://www.russiachess.org/news/all/18_noyabria_ushla_iz_zhizni_elena_akhmylovskaya/ |date=2012-11-20 }}</ref>
[[File:UdSSR 24 Dubai 1986.jpg|left|thumb|Akhmilovskaya, [[Nona Gaprindashvili|Gaprindashvili]], and [[Nana Alexandria|Alexandria]] at [[Chess Olympiad 1986]]]]
Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya was born in [[Leningrad]] in a family where all members played chess. In 1969 the family moved to [[Krasnoyarsk]], where she started playing chess in the local [[Pioneers Palace]] chess circle. She lived in [[Sochi]], then in [[Tbilisi]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] from 1979 until 1988, when she abruptly [[elopement|eloped]] to the United States by marrying U.S. team captain [[William John Donaldson|John Donaldson]] at the [[Chess Olympiad]] in [[Thessaloniki]], Greece.
She lived in the [[Seattle]] area with her new husband, Georgi Orlov (himself an [[International Master]]), and their son after 1990. Her daughter from a previous marriage also lived in Seattle. She won the [[U.S. Women's Chess Championship]] in 1990 and 1994 and tied for the championship in 1993.<ref name=weber>{{citation |last=Weber |first=Bruce |title=Elena Donaldson, Chess Champion in U.S.S.R. and Then U.S., Dies at 55 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 20, 2012 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/21/crosswords/chess/elena-akhmilovskaya-donaldson-chess-champ-in-ussr-and-us-dies-at-55.html}}</ref>
In 2010, she was awarded the title of [[FIDE Instructor]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=2000547 |title=Donaldson-A., Elena FIDE rating card |website=ratings.fide.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802172707/http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=2000547 |archive-date=2012-08-02 |access-date=2019-09-05}}</ref> She died of [[brain cancer]] in 2012 in [[Kirkland, Washington]].<ref name="weber" />
== References ==
<references />
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{OlimpBase FIDE ratings|Akhmilovskaya,%20Elena}}
* {{OlimpBase women's player|ka824o4u}}
* {{USCF|12523510|Elena Donaldson}}
* {{Chessgames player|15604|Elena Akhmylovskaia-Donaldson}}
* {{365Chess.com player|Elena_Akhmilovskaya}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-ach|ach}}
{{succession box
| before = [[Alexey Root]]
| title  = [[U.S. Women's Chess Championship|U.S. Women's Chess Champion]]
| years  = 1990
| after  = [[Esther Epstein]] and [[Irina Levitina]]
}}
{{succession box
| before = [[Irina Levitina]]
| title  = [[U.S. Women's Chess Championship|U.S. Women's Chess Champion]]
| years  = 1993 (with Irina Levitina) and 1994
| after  = [[Anjelina Belakovskaia]] and [[Sharon Burtman]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya, Elena}}
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:American female chess players]]
[[Category:American chess players]]
[[Category:American people of Russian descent]]
[[Category:Chess Woman Grandmasters]]
[[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]]
[[Category:Chess players from Saint Petersburg]]
[[Category:Chess players from Seattle]]
[[Category:Soviet female chess players]]
[[Category:Soviet chess players]]
[[Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Deaths from brain cancer in the United States]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]