Valentina Borisenko
Valentina Borisenko (nee Belova) was born in the town of Cherepovets in 1920. Her father was a doctor. She learned chess while a high-school student in Leningrad, and in 1937 made her debut in the semi-final of the city tournament for the women's championship.
She showed exceptional persistence in studying theory and playing in strong tournaments; she acquired valuable experience from the defeats she sustained at the beginning.
A fearless, industrious player, she won second-category rating in a men's classification tournament at the end of 1938. Her first big success came in 1940, when she won the Leningrad women's crown.
During the Great Patriotic War Valentina Borisenko taught school in a village in Irkutsk Region, Siberia. Since many of the collective farmers were serving in the armed forces and there was a shortage of tractor drivers, she learned to drive a tractor and worked on the collective farm during the summer school vacation.
Early in 1945 Valentina Borisenko returned to Leningrad and resumed play in chess tournaments. In the autumn of the same year she became Leningrad champion for the second time, winning nearly all her games in the tournament. She followed this up with her greatest achievement to date: she won the women's crown of the U.S.S.R. for 1945.
Playing in the radio match between the U.S.S.R. and Great Britain in 1946, Valentina Borisenko won both her games against Tranmere, Britain's best woman player.
Among her other outstanding performances are a tie for second place in the U.S.S.R. Championship of 1947, second place in the U.S.S.R. Championship of 1950, and high places in Leningrad championships and men's tournaments of first-category players and candidate-masters.
She was promoted to the Masterclass after tying for third with Elizaveta Bykova in the World Championship Tournament of 1949-1950. In the challengers' tournament in 1952 she shared fourth place with Kira Zvorykina (U.S.S.R.) and E. Keller-Hermann (German Democratic Republic).
At present Valentina Borisenko lives in Sverdlovsk, where she teaches chess theory and practice to young women players.
Valentina Borisenko prefers an active positional game. She has an excellent grasp of the fine points of the end-game. In positions of all types she strives to capture the initiative. The following game is typical.
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