Chessboss

Natalia Pogonina is a Russian international grandmaster in chess, and one of the top rated women in the world. At the age of 24, she’s already made quite a name for herself since she burst onto the chess scene by winning the Russian Girls under-14 National Championship in 1998. She followed that victory up by wining the European Chess Championship three times among the girls, winning the Rudenko Memorial in 2007, and the World Student Chess Championship in 2008. She won a gold and a bronze medal in team chess at the World Mind Sport Games in 2008, and represented Russia on their Olympic team.

This is all a long way from her beginnings at the age of 8 where she began serious study into chess after becoming top at checkers at her school. By 2004 she had been awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster. She is now rated fourteenth in the world for women in chess according to her FIDE rating of 2501. In spite of this, she has a wide variety of interests including flamenco dancing, music, sports, multiple kinds of literature, and photography. Additionally, she is currently working on a postgraduate degree at the Saratov State Academy of Law.

Natalia Pogonina is also working hard to advance the strength of women in chess. She acts as a model to promote the idea of beauty and intellect working hand in hand together, and says she can imagine a female absolute world chess champion sometime in the near future. She dislikes the idea of men and women playing at different levels, but thinks that women’s chess is “more competitive, unpredictable, and exciting.” Best of all, since women in chess are far less common, she believes succeeding to a reasonable level takes less time, and can be far more rewarding, leading women to the motivation for great success in any league, just as she’s had.