Dina Vadimovna Belenkaya (Russian: Дина Вадимовна Беленькая; born 22 December 1993) is a Russian-Israeli chess player, commentator, Twitch streamer, and YouTuber who holds the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM).
Despite limited achievements at the junior level, Belenkaya has had more success in adult competitions, beginning with her victory in the Russian Women's Championship First League in 2011 at age 17.
She earned the Woman Grandmaster title in 2016 after achieving norms at open tournaments in France in three successive years beginning in 2014.
When she was 10 years old, she began working with Andrey Praslov, a FIDE Master (FM) who was a coach at the same chess club as her mother.
[3][4][5][6] Belenkaya earned her first FIDE rating in April 2007 at age 13, starting out at 1872 after participating in the Winter on Petrograd Side Open in January.
[3][15][16] During 2012, Belenkaya finished in joint fourth with a score of 5½/9 at the Cup of Russia women's second stage, behind Olga Girya, Aleksandra Goryachkina, and Ekaterina Timofeeva, all of whom were much higher rated.
[7] Early in 2013, she defeated Igor Shvyrjov, an Estonian Grandmaster rated 2470, in the IM group of the Paul Keres Memorial Festival.
With the tournament in Belgrade, she scored 5/11, highlighted by an opening round win against Elisabeth Pähtz, a German International Master (IM) rated 2454.
She followed up this result by winning the bronze medal at the Open International d'Echecs d'Avoine in France behind two Grandmasters, Maxime Lagarde and Alon Greenfeld.
[25][34] During 2017, Belenkaya won the bronze medal at the Moscow Open B, the women's division of the tournament, behind Oksana Gritsayeva and Alina Kashlinskaya.
[37][38] In 2017, Belenkaya was reprimanded by the FIDE Ethics Commission for making a "reckless and unjustified" accusation of cheating against Mihaela Sandu during the 2015 European Individual Women’s Chess Championship.
[39][40][41] Early in 2018, Belenkaya defeated Luke McShane, an English Grandmaster, at the Bunratty Masters, a six-round unrated Swiss tournament in Ireland.
She defeated three International Masters during the event, namely Nataliya Buksa, Evgenija Ovod, and Sophie Milliet, the last two of which in the final two rounds.
Representing the St. Petersburg team SDYUSSHOR SHSH (Specialized Children and Youth Olympic Reserve School Chess and Checkers) in 2015, she won a silver medal in the 2015 ten-team tournament together with Anastasia Bodnaruk, Evgenija Ovod, and Alina Balaian.
[55][56] Belenkaya fared better at her following appearances in the event, gaining rating points at her next five Russian Women's Team Championships.
The team won the silver medal again in 2016 with a similar set of players, only moving Balaian to the reserve board and replacing her with Anna Styazhkina.
[69][70] Although Belenkaya lost rating points in both 2018 and 2019, her victories against higher-rated players Stavroula Tsolakidou and Zhansaya Abdumalik helped her team earn opening-round draws in both instances.
[77] The following season, Bad Königshofen entered the final round needing a draw against second-place SK Schwäbisch Hall to clinch the title.
[80] Belenkaya played on the top board for the Sahmatni Kruzok team based in Novi Sad for the 2019 Serbian Women's League.
Her sister Asya, an artist and a beginner-level chess player, later joined the channel around July 2020, adding more variety.
Around the same time that Belenkaya started streaming on Twitch, she also launched a YouTube channel with similar types of content.
For Chess.com, she has commentated for a variety of their online events including the weekly Titled Tuesdays and the Speed Chess Championship.
[87] A day afterwards though, both fighters were credited with a win after the organizers deemed the referee should have stopped the match as a technical knockout for Botez because Belenkaya needed one more stoppage than allotted in the last boxing round.