Player Bios

Irina Krush is hoping to secure her U.S. Women’s Champion title for the fifth time in a row this year against a field of familiar faces. She has won the Championship seven times as has been the reigning Champ from 2012 - 2015.

Krush has entrenched herself as the figurehead to elite American women’s chess play by earning the title of Grandmaster in October 2013. America's only active female GM says she doesn't spend much time contemplating her current chess success or failures -- "I'm more attached to my future accomplishments."

Born in Odessa, USSR (now Ukraine) in 1983, Irina learned to play chess at age five, emigrating with her parents to Brooklyn that same year. Krush attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, where she participated in one of the top high-school chess teams in the country. It has been a rapid climb for Irina since then, including exceptional showings in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Chess Olympiads, as well as a gold-medal performance in the 2013 Women’s World Team Championship -- a result Krush called the best of her career.

In addition to her chess studies, the 2008 Samford Chess Fellowship recipient enjoys tennis, reading, writing, yoga and music. Krush has a degree in international relations from NYU, though she is currently concentrating on chess. She said she enjoys the challenge of playing other Grandmasters most: "When you beat a strong GM, that's when you feel like you can play chess."

Katerina Nemcova has been a dangerous competitor in the U.S. Women’s Championship from the moment she changed her federation in 2013. This marks the third year in a row that she has played in the Championship and she has proven that she is capable of fighting for the title.

Last year, she led the field for most of the tournament but ultimately tied for second with Nazi Paikidze. She played Irina Krush in the final round and a win would have forced a playoff but they drew the game and Krush became the Champion.

Nemcova is a member of the prestigious Webster University chess team where she majored in public relations. Coached by Susan Polgar, Nemcova has shown rapid improvement in recent years and enters this year’s Championship nearly 50 points higher-rated than she was a year ago.

Nemcova is a Prague-born, Czech chess champion who learned to play at age four. She won her national youth championship in eight different age categories on her ascent, topping out in 2008 as the Czech Women’s Champion and earning the title again in 2010.

Nemcova is the product of a complete chess-playing family, the third of seven siblings, all of whom were taught chess and fueled by chess-playing parents.  Four Nemcova girls, including Katerina, have earned Czech youth champion titles.

“My father always had us all practice together, it was always a nice family moment - not just like ‘practice,’ but always a lot of fun with my siblings,” Nemcova said. “I’ve always had my best performances in team events - I just feel like more people is more fun, the collectiveness of the whole event. I’m used to fighting together with my siblings; I like people around.”

She has represented the Czech Republic in a team event every year from 2007 to 2012 and was a three-time Olympic (2008, 2010, 2012) player and a gold-medalist as the second board at the European Women's Team Championship in 2007 with a score of 7.5/9 points.

Individually, Nemcova found her international stride after a second-place showing in the 2007 World Youth Championship (Kemer-Antalya, Turkey), followed up with a win at the 2008 European Youth Chess Championship after entering as the highest-rated girl U18.

By the age of six, Sabina Foisor had started participating in chess tournaments and, by the time she was 18 she had already been finishing in top 3 at multiple National Romanian and European Junior Chess Championships. She says that aside from having earned her WGM title, her most memorable achievement was at the 2007 European Women’s Chess Championship where she shared 5th place qualifying for the 2008 World Women’s Chess Championship.

Foisor credits much of her early success in chess to the intense mentorship she received from her parents (both International Masters) as a child—each day devoting around five hours of studying chess. Like many U.S. Championship players, she has traveled the globe playing chess tournaments, and she has participated in each of the past seven U.S. Women's Championships (2009-2015). Additionally she has represented the U.S. at three Chess Olympiads and two World Women’s Team Chess Championships.

In 2008, after receiving a chess scholarship at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Foisor decided to focus on her studies. She graduated Cum Laude in Modern Languages and Linguistics and continued pursuing a Masters in Intercultural Communications. Upon finishing her Masters in 2014, Sabina moved to Lubbock, Texas, where she currently serves as a Unit Coordinator for the Cross-Cultural Academic Advancement Center at Texas Tech University where she strives to organize events that promote diversity and academic excellence on campus and in the community.

Foisor does not consider herself a professional chess player anymore. However, she states that chess will always be a part of her life and she loves promoting it to make a change. She has recently started a YouTube channel where she loves to share her knowledge. Additionally her love for cooking has given her the idea to create a chess cooking website. When not working, playing or training for chess, Sabina likes to travel, read books, watch movies, cooking and blogging.

A familiar face in the U.S. Women’s Championship, Alisa Melekhina is making her eighth appearance this year having had more time to study chess since graduating from law school in May of 2014.

Emigrating from Crimea, Ukraine, Melekhina's family spent her early childhood growing accustomed to their new life in the United States. It was during this time that Melekhina's father first taught her chess. By the time she was seven, she was already participating in her first tournaments.

Since then, Melekhina has been a regular competitor in both national and international events, placing third in the World Open U2400 Section and being crowned the first female Pennsylvania State Champion. Melekhina said, "My top chess accomplishment is winning the gold medal at the 2009 Women's World Team Championships in Ningbo, China."

Alisa Melekhina achieved her FIDE Master rating in 2011, the same year she began attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Even though it only took her two years to graduate, Melekhina admits that the undergrad workload paid its toll on her chess studies. While Melehkina continues to stay busy with her own entrepreneurial endeavors and a full-time position at a New York law firm, she has recommitted herself to chess. 

Entering the tournament as the number one highest-rated female chess player under 14 in the world, Akshita Gorti is hoping for a successful debut performance in the U.S. Women’s Championship this year.

Gorti has been successful in all female tournaments before: coming in second in the 2013 All-Girl National Championship U18 and the 2013 All-Girl National Blitz Championship U18, tying for first in the 2014 U.S. Junior Girls Invitational, and taking clear first in the Manchester November WGM Norm Tournament in 2015.

Since joining the USCF in 2009, Gorti’s rating has been on an up-and-down rollercoaster ride with massive rating changes in both directions and rarely see a dull moment. Her rating has increased dramatically each year with a large part of her success due to the fact that she averages over 30 tournaments a year.

Starting with a rating of about 400 in March of 2009, she more than doubled her rating and finished the year rated above 1000. By the close of 2010 she had improved her rating to 1476. Over the next two years her rating rose to above 1800. In May of 2013 she broke 2000 for the first time, becoming a chess Expert where her rating continued to skyrocket. Two year later, in May of 2015, Gorti broke 2200 and earned the title of National Master. Two months and four tournaments later, she broke 2300 for the first time in July of 2015.

Last year, she earned both the title of Woman International Master and FIDE Master. This year will be her first opportunity to showcase her strength on the national stage.