Dinara Saduakassova – the Kazakh prodigy

At the recent Karposh Open I met a young, pretty, dark-haired girl, with a long plate reaching below the waist, Kazakh style. WGM Dinara Saduakassova had won the Best Woman Prize at the tournament at which no fewer than 98 titled players had partaken. Soft spoken, sweet and serious at the same time, Dinara has an effortless manner to win you over.

Dinara Saduakassova

Born in 1996 in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the 31st October, she likes to point out that she shares the same birth date with the fourth world champion, Alexander Alekhine, and former world champion in blitz, Alexander Grischuk. Focused, determined and absolutely in love with the game of chess, her manner and confidence, as well as her results, indicate that she is also champion material. In a short span of about five years as a chess player, she has amassed more than 45 medals and prizes in national, Asian and world competitions.

Dinara, a champion in the making

Dinara started playing chess when she was five. She would win many local and national competitions already by the the age of ten. By the time she was fourteen, her successes reached world proportions: In 2010 she was the world champion among girls under-14, having won with 9.0/11. In 2014 she won the under-18 World Youth Championship for girls, with a dominant 10.0/11.

Her national and Asian prizes include a vice-champion of Kazakhstan under-20, seven-time champion of the Republic of Kazakhstan and a triple world and Asian Vice-Champion.

Dinara in her national chess uniform

At the 2012 Olympiad in Istambul, fifteen- year-old Saduakassova was its youngest participant. She played on third board for her national team scoring 7.0/9, which included a draw with China’s WGM Ju Wenjun who was ranked 312 points higher than Dinara. As a result of the successful performance in Istambul, Saduakassova was awarded the Woman Grand Master title. A little later, the same year, she shared first at the prestigious Moscow Open.

2012 was the most successful year for Dinara that saw her being presented with a national award,
’The Best Sportswoman’. Here she celebrates with the Kazakhstan President, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

At 2401 rating, today she is ranked first in her country and 70th in the world among women; she is ninth in the FIDE top girls.

With Dinara as a subject of this interview, I take this opportunity to point to the steady climb of Kazakh chess and particularly its women’s team. Their biggest success was the latest Olympiad, at Tromso, 2014, where they shared 4-6th place (with Georgia and Armenia), with 8.5/11 and no loss. ’It was like a victory for us’, quips Dinara.

The Kazakh chess girls repeated a similar success, winning again sixth place at the recent World Women’s Team Championships in Chengdu, China, in April of this year. Dinara brought in an important point winning a game against the former World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk.

The Kazakh Women Team at the 2015 World Team Championships. From left: Zhansaya
Abdumalik, Guliskhan Nakhbayeva, Madina Davletbayeva, Gulmira Dauletova and Dinara
Saduakassova (Photo: WTC Official website)

The Kazakhstan Chess Federation celebrated the "International Day of Chess", 20 July by organising a simultaneous exhibition conducted by Dinara, on the "Chess Square" in Astana. The square was opened in 2005; it is situated in the central park of the city, amidst lush greenery and trees planted symbolically by, among others, Anatoly Karpov and Boris Spassky

Dinara giving a simultaneous of the Chess Square in Astana on 20 July, the International Day of Chess

Dinara is truly in love with her native city Astana. It is refreshing to hear from somebody who has travelled the world over to express such a tender appreciation for their own city. ’Astana is my favourite city in the world. I always miss home and Astana when I am away.’ In her spare time, she likes reading books, watching movies, listening to music, swimming, table tennis, skiing and – walking on the streets of Astana!

Enjoying a day in Astana in front of the Ishim river

In her private life, Dinara remains a big child at heart. Cuddling a fluffy toy from her collection of teddy bears gives her a tender pleasure that seems almost a complete contrast to the deep concentration she displays in a chess game.

Dinara with a part of her collection of teddy bears

Dinara is under her mother’s constant vigil. A chemical biologist by profession, Mrs. Oral Utesheva has played a decisive role in the shaping of Dinara’s career. Noticing her daughter’s many creative gifts, she supported her in several endeavours while Dinara was a young school pupil. Her idea was to give Dinara free rope to taste various disciplines until they discover where the multi-talented girl especially excels. Mrs Utesheva thought that a particular ’profession’ would discern itself following Dinara’s development and results. For a while, it was difficult to make a choice as the gifted and disciplined girl would show excellent results wherever she would put her foot in.

Dinara and her mother, at the Karpos Open, in Skopje, Macedonia, March 2015

Dinara had a spell as a gymnast and as a pianist, two creative activities that predominated over the others in her early years. As a gymnast, she participated in international competitions in artistic gymnastics. As a pianist, following a rigid musical education and piano practice, she mastered some difficult numbers in the classical repertoire. Mozart, Haydn and Schumann are her favourites, but she also played some pieces of the Kazakh national repertoire and was eager to try her hand at the complex piano inventions by Bach.

She attended the school Zerde, a specialised educational institution for gifted children, at which she graduated with honours and was awarded as the ’Best Talent’.

A small portrait of Dinara Saduakassova

Chess was just lurking on the horizon while Dinara was making noteworthy appearances in other sports and artistic fields. Once again, it was her mother who would prove crucial for Dinara’s development as a chess player. Fond of chess herself, Mrs Utesheva took the five-year old Dinara to a chess club. She was also her first trainer. Within time, as the inexplicable destiny would have wanted it, chess won over and, with her mother’s blessings, Dinara succumbed to its guiles for the price of gymnastics, music and any other further shaping that her young, creative spirit might yet undergo.

Dinara with her two siblings, sister Ainur and lawyer brother Arsen, who is also a chess
coach and an international arbiter

Understandably, the role of a supportive, nurturing mother cannot be underestimated

As of 2010, Dinara abandoned her regular schooling in order to dedicate herself fully to the game of chess, continuing her education through home study. It is surprising to hear that she has achieved such amazing success working predominantly on her own; but she intimated that she is looking for a coach.

Today, she is a professional chess player with a clear goal: to become a woman World Champion! She is convinced that her dream is a realistic expectation. ’I have enough time to achieve this.’ Her belief and determination are contagious. I could wish for nothing more than this ’modest’ desire to become a reality.

An opportunity has presented herself already for Dinara to try her first take towards this aim. At the recent Zonal Championship for Women (Zone 3.4, Central Asia), Dinara was the only one of the fourteen participants who was undefeated in the nine-round qualifying tournament. With 6.5/9, she was proclaimed champion and will represent Central Asia and, naturally, Kazakhstan, at next year’s Women World Championship.

Dinara, a darling of Kazakh TV

Already, a new challenge is on its way – she is playing at the Asian Continental Championships (Open and Women’s) taking place in Al Ain (UAE) from 1-13 August, 2015.

Photos: Dinara Saduakassova’s archive and Diana Mihajlova