{{short description|Soviet-American chess player (1957–2012)}} {{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 = Soviet Union (before 1989)<br>United States (after 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. |spouse = {{marriage|John Donaldson|1988|1989|end=div}} | title = Woman Grandmaster (1977) | peakrating = 2435 (January 1987) }}
'''Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya''' (born ''Elena Bronislavovna Akhmilovskaya'', {{langx|ru|Елена Брониславовна Ахмыловская}}; 11 March 1957 – 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 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, Gaprindashvili, and 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 from 1979 until 1988, when she abruptly eloped to the United States by marrying U.S. team captain 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 Champion | years = 1990 | after = Esther Epstein and Irina Levitina }} {{succession box | before = Irina Levitina | title = 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 Washington (state) Category:21st-century American women Category:20th-century American sportswomen