| Vera Nebolsina | |
|---|---|
Karlsruhe 2019
| |
| Country | Russia |
| Born | (1989-12-16) 16 December 1989 (age 34) Seversk, Soviet Union |
| Title | Woman Grandmaster (2007) |
| Peak rating | 2389 (January 2011) |
Vera Nebolsina (Russian: Вера Неболсина; born 16 December 1989 in Seversk) is a Russian professional chess player. She earned the title Woman Grandmaster (WGM) at age 17 in 2007.[1]
Nebolsina was born in Seversk near Tomsk in western Siberia to Chess Master Valery Nebolsin and Tatiana; the family also lived in Novosibirsk.[2][1][3] Her mother began teaching her basic chess moves when Nebolsina was four and introduced her to other board games, such as draughts and Go.[3] Her father coached her to further develop her chess skills and by age six, she was playing in formal tournaments, oftentimes in categories above her age group.[3][4]
At age seven, Nebolsina won the Russian Girls Under 8 Championship and the World Youth Championship for girls under 10 in Oropesa del Mar at eight years old.[3] By age twelve, she was playing the Russian Women's 1st League and in 2004 she earned the title Woman International Master.[5][6] In 2007, when she was just seventeen, she won the World Junior Championship for Girls (under 20) at Yerevan, which qualified her for the title of Woman Grandmaster.[7][8][1] The highest ranking of her career thus far came in January 2011, when she was ranked #2389 in the world,[8] and her highest junior ranking was #12 among the world's top 20 girl players.[9] Nebolsina describes herself as a positional player who can also be a tactician.[10] In 2016, she won the U.S. Women's Open Chess Championship.[11]
Although the following game is not without errors, Nebolsina's play shows the importance of piece mobility over pawn moves, of which there are few. Despite spirited defence from her opponent, Nebolsina finds a pleasing queen sacrifice to conclude matters. The sample game below ably demonstrates her alertness to tactical possibilities.[12]
Nebolsina is a moral vegetarian.[13] As of September 2020, she lives with her husband Gata Kamsky in France, where she is enrolled at university.[14][15] In 2011, she was attending Novosibirsk State Technical University as an International Relations/Oriental Studies student and spent two years studying in China at Qingdao University.[1][16] She also attended Moscow State University, where she studied English and Chinese.[10] She knows Chinese[17] and French[13] and is fluent in Russian and English.[16] In 2015, she spoke at a TED (conference)#TEDx in her hometown of Novosibirsk.[18]
