An Israeli Grandmaster

The Fellowship  |  June 14, 2019

Tatiana Zatulovskaya

Lived: December 8, 1935 – July 2, 2017

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in what was then the Soviet Union, Tatiana Zatulovskaya first used her chess prowess for the then-Soviet chess superpower, winning the women’s chess championship three times, and being named Woman International Master in 1961 and Woman Grandmaster in 1976.

But once the Iron Curtain fell, the Jewish chess grandmaster at last escaped the hard life she had led and made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel, her biblical and historic homeland. Having also led a life as a geological engineer and competed as a gymnast, Tatiana used her chess mastery in the Holy Land, representing Israel in the 2002 Women’s Chess Olympiad. And Israel is where she lived out the rest of her life, passing away two years ago there at the age of 81.