Dina Belenkaya

Belenkaya (centre) with the winner's trophy for the 2011 Russian Women's Championship First League

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.[6][7] The next month, she played the St. Petersburg Women's Championship for the first time.[8] Belenkaya reached a rating of 2000 in October 2008 at age 14 after a good performance in the Lyudmila Rudenko Memorial Women's Open where she scored an even 4/8[lower-alpha 1] against opponents with a much higher average rating of 2242.[6][9] At the end of the year, she finished in joint first at the under-18 girls' St. Petersburg Championships with a score of 6½/9.[10][11][12]

Belenkaya first reached a rating of 2100 in 2010 and a rating of 2200 at the end of 2011.[6] She was awarded the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title in 2010.[13] Her best result of 2011 came in February when she won the Russian Women's Championship First League in Ivanovo at age 17. She scored 8/9 against opponents with an average rating of 2192. She compiled a performance rating of 2543 and had three wins against players rated above 2300, namely Maria Fominykh, Inna Ivakhinova, and Daria Charochkina. This was the last edition of the First League.[2][14][15] 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.[16]

Belenkaya continued to maintain a rating in the low 2200s through mid-2014.[6] Early in 2013, she defeated Igor Shvyrjov, an Estonian Grandmaster rated 2470, in the IM group of the Paul Keres Memorial Festival.[17] After a bronze medal in the Russian girls' under-21 junior championship,[2][18] she participated in the European Individual Women's Chess Championship for the first time. 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.[19][20] Belenkaya had her first significant rating increase since 2011 during the August 2014 rating period when she gained over 100 rating points from two tournaments to rise to 2329, above the threshold of 2300 needed for the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title.[6][21] First, she gained 30 rating points at the European Individual Women's Chess Championship with an even score of 5½/11 against opponents with an average rating of 2321. 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. She scored 7/9 with a performance rating of 2557, highlighted by victories over four International Masters. Her only loss was to the tournament winner Lagarde.[22][23] Overall, she gained 76 rating points.[21] She also earned her first WGM norm by scoring well above the 5½ points that were required, and also earned her first IM norm.[24][25]

Belenkaya being interviewed at the 2020 Gibraltar Chess Festival

For much of her career as an adult, Belenkaya has kept her rating in-between 2250 and 2350.[6] Amidst a series of poor results in the first half of 2015 that led her rating to drop as low as 2213, she had a good result in March when she won the St. Petersburg Women's Championship for the first time. She scored 7½/9, a ½ point ahead of runner-up Alina Balaian.[26][27] In the second half of the year, Belenkaya regained all of the rating points she had lost and reached a new peak rating of 2352.[6] Her biggest rating increase was again in August, when she gained 30 points in the Russian Women's Championship Higher League and 62 points at the Festival International de Condom in France.[28] The latter tournament was a ten-player round-robin. Despite being the lowest-rated player, she scored 6/9 to finish runner-up to Serghei Vedmediuc, a Moldovan IM. She earned both her second WGM norm and her second IM norm, the former of which with a ½ point more than what was needed.[24][29][30][31]

Belenkaya was awarded the Woman Grandmaster title in 2016.[13][24] For the second consecutive year, she earned both a WGM norm and an IM norm at the Festival International de Condom, thereby clinching the WGM title. As the second-lowest rated player, she finished in joint first with three other players a score of 6/9, but came in fourth because of the tiebreak criteria.[32] Her score was 1 point higher than the required score for the WGM norm.[24][33] 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.[34][35] At the end of the year, she won another bronze medal by reaching the semifinals of the Russian Cup for Women. She knocked out Alexandra Makarenko in the first round before losing to Elena Tomilova.[36][37]

Early in 2018, Belenkaya defeated Luke McShane, an English Grandmaster, at the Bunratty Masters, a six-round unrated Swiss tournament in Ireland. With a rating of 2643 at the time, McShane is the highest-rated player she has defeated.[38][39][40][41] Belenkaya's best tournament performances in 2018 included winning the St. Petersburg Women's Championship for the second time and gaining 42 rating points in the Serbian Women's League.[42][43][44] She reached a peak rating of 2364 early the following year in February 2019.[6] One of her best results in 2019 was at the European Individual Women's Chess Championship in Antalya, where she scored 7/11 to finish in 22nd place and earn the 14th and final qualification spot for the inaugural Women's World Cup. 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.[45][46]

Belenkaya won the St. Petersburg Women's Championship for a third and a fourth time in 2020 and 2021 to give her the sixth most tournament wins among women in the city's history.[47] At the inaugural Women's World Cup in 2021, Belenkaya was the 66th seed out of 103 competitors. She was eliminated in the first round by 63rd seed Teodora Injac, losing both classical games.[48] Belenkaya changed her federation to Israel in March 2022.[49]

Belenkaya (third from right) at the 2016 Russian Team Championship

Belenkaya has competed in the Russian Women's Team Championship six times since 2015. 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. This result also earned them a place in the European Club Cup later that year.[50] Individually, Belenkaya did not fare well, scoring 3/7 and losing 9 rating points.[51][52] 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. Belenkaya scored 5/8 and gained 10 rating points.[53][54] While the team only won the bronze medal in 2017 and 2018, Belenkaya scored 5/7 and 6/8 those years, gaining 16 and 11 rating points respectively.[55][56][57][58] The team won the silver medal again in 2019.[59] Although they did not win a medal in 2021, Belenkaya had a performance rating of 2434, her best at the event, and gained 37 rating points.[60]

Belenkaya also played on the same SDYUSSHOR SHSH team for the European Club Cup for Women. At the 2015 event, SDYUSSHOR SHSH finished in seventh place out of twelve teams.[61] They finished in seventh place again the following year in 2016, this time out of fourteen teams.[62] Like the national competition, Belenkaya had a better result in her second appearance, scoring 4½/7 and gaining rating points in 2016 compared to a score of 3½/7 in 2015 that lost her rating points.[63][64] Belenkaya's best team result was in 2018 when the competition was divided into a two-group six-team round-robin stage and a three-group four-team two-round knockout stage in which the groups were determined by the round-robin placings. SDYUSSHOR SHSH qualified for the top knockout group and finished in fourth place.[65][66] 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.[65][67][68]

Belenkaya has competed in the Women's Bundesliga in Germany since 2015. She has played for Bad Königshofen since 2016 after her original team, SF 1891 Friedberg, dissolved after her first year.[69][70] With Belenkaya playing for the club, Bad Königshofen won the league in back-to-back editions in 2018–19 and 2019–21.[70][71][72] Belenkaya had excellent results in both championship seasons. She scored 8½/9 during the 2018–19 season, defeating all of her opponents except Karina Ambartsumova, a Woman Grandmaster rated 2396. Her overall performance rating was 2537.[73] The following season, Bad Königshofen entered the final round needing a draw against second-place SK Schwäbisch Hall to clinch the title. In the final match, Belenkaya defeated Irina Bulmaga, an International Master rated 2396, to help her team draw the match and win the league.[70][74] Overall, Belenkaya had a score of 6½/8, corresponding to a performance rating of 2453 and also highlighted by a win against Zhansaya Abdumalik, who was rated 2471 at the time.[75]

Belenkaya has also competed in leagues in France and Serbia. In late 2019, Belenkaya defeated Momchil Nikolov, a Grandmaster rated 2557, in the French league.[76] Belenkaya played on the top board for the Sahmatni Kruzok team based in Novi Sad for the 2019 Serbian Women's League.[77]