EP 422- WGM Dina Belenkaya on Her Recent Tournies, Her Continued Social Media Growth, and the Vision Behind her New Chess School

WGM Dina Belenkaya is a Russian-born and schooled chess champion who is now based in Charlotte, North Carolina. In recent years,  Dina has built a massive Twitch, YouTube and Instagram following, while maintaining a busy competitive schedule. In this interview, we caught up with Dina's recent OTB results, including her impressions of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz in New York City. Dina discusses the challenges she is currently encountering in her game as well as her current chess goals. Dina and I also talked extensively about her newest chess project, Chess with Dina. It is a chess academy that emphasizes the social side of chess improvement, and it has seen a fast growth since it launched last year. Dina discussed the building blocks that newer players should focus on, based on her experience as a product of Russia’s legendary chess education infrastructure. Lastly, we touched a bit on Freestyle chess, as Dina discussed why she thinks it might be challenging for the chess variant to catch on with newer chess players. As always, timestamps of topics discussed are below.  Photo in thumbnail from Dina’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEdUEivv8QT/?hl=en&img_index=1 Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com! Be sure to check out their new offerings here: https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/ And if you sign up for Chessable Pro in order to unlock discounts and additional features, be sure to use the following link: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro 0:02- What has changed for Dina in the past two years since I last interviewed her?  Mentioned: Episode 326 with Dina Belenkaya 0:05- Dina has been playing OTB quite actively.  How is her game progressing?  0:11- Dina’s impressions of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz  Mentioned: You can review Dina’s game against WGM Atousa Pourkashyan here: https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-rapid--blitz-championships-2024--blitz-women/round-11/JvQWXSPT/ugyly8Xl You can watch Magnus’ recent interview here: https://x.com/taketaketakeapp/status/1887126217091874871?s=46&t=7an2GBXWXIlgRTjDfRwIGw 25:00- Is Dina still working with a coach?  27:00- Dina’s discusses the value of face-to-face moments and a recent training camp she hosted for her chess school.  Mentioned: More info about her school here: https://www.skool.com/russianchessschool/about 42:00- What does Dina think of Freestyle chess? Do her students like it? Mentioned: Dina’s blog: https://www.dinabelenkaya.com/post/let-s-talk-fischer-random-   0:55:00- Thanks to Dina for coming back on the pod! Here is how to to keep up with her: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dinabelenkaya/?hl=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DinaBelenkaya/videos Twitter/X: https://x.com/messages/60494861-1366144904590671876 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dinabelenkaya Blog: https://www.dinabelenkaya.com/post/let-s-talk-fischer-random-chess Chess School: https://www.skool.com/russianchessschool/about Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess via Patreon, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/c/perpetualchess Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices