Interview with Natalia Pogonina

Chess interview with Natalia Pogonina
by latestchess.com

Natalia Pogonina is a leading Russian chess Woman Grandmaster and member of the Russian chess Olympic team. Her current FIDE rating is over 2500. She won the gold medal at the 1st International Mind Sports Games, some of her best performances includes, championship titles at Bykova Memorial, Rudenko memorial, Moscow Open.

She would like to see women chess players doing their best to match the best male players. According to her, we might see a female absolute world chess champion. Apart from Chess, Natalia is also widely known as a person of great physical and spiritual beauty.

LatestChess :- Hello Natalia, We are glad to have you on LatestChess. You are having great start for the year with Bronze medal at the European Women Chess Championship and Championship title at Moscow Open. How do you re-focus your goals as a chess player and in which direction do you see yourself going?

GM Natalia Pogonina :- Thank you, it’s a pleasure for me to be interviewed for LatestChess. The start of the year has indeed been successful for me, but I am not overexcited about it. I have always been pursuing the highest goals, so my successful performance at Moscow and the European Women Chess Championship have only strengthened my determination to progress. I am looking forward to the Women World Chess Championship next year and would do my best to prepare well for it.

LatestChess :- How do you balance the competing demands of your multiple professions as a GM, model, practicing Law? Have you ever considered giving up one to concentrate on the other?

GM Natalia Pogonina :- Chess is my primary occupation, so I dedicate most of my time to it. Other activities that you have mentioned don’t require that much energy, so I manage to spare some time for them too. One shouldn’t confine himself to his job, people should develop harmoniously.

LatestChess :- Chess has been effectively used as a powerful educational tool; Russians were the first to introduce chess as a subject in the Schools. How is your experience having chess as a subject in the school?

GM Natalia Pogonina :- Chess is an optional subject in Russia, and is on schedule in only in some schools, not all. When I went to school we didn’t have any chess lessons. Only during the last two years some steps have been taken in the direction of introducing chess in schools. I strongly appreciate this since chess is extremely effective in terms of developing a person’s thinking abilities.

LatestChess :- Did your chess studies affect your schooling when you were growing up? When did you decide to become a professional chess player?

GM Natalia Pogonina :- I don’t think that studying chess has greatly affected my results in other subjects. At that time I didn’t spend that much time playing chess, and was just a regular kid. Some subjects were less challenging, some were more. When I was about 12 years old I have firmly decided that I am going to be a professional chess player.

Special thanks to latestchess.com for sharing this interview with our bloggers.