Career
She has been one of the strongest woman players in the world. Akhmilovskaya was born in Leningrad in a family where all members played chess. In 1969 the family moves to Krasnoyarsk where Elena started playing chess in the local Pioneers Palace chess circle.
She lived in Sochi, then in Tbilisi, Georgia from 1979 until 1988, when she abruptly eloped to the United States by marrying United States. Team Captain John Donaldson at the World Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Her daughter from a previous marriage also lived in Seattle. On the January 2009 FIDE list her Elo rating was 2375.
Her peak rating was 2430 in 1990. In 2010 she was awarded the title of FIDE Instructor.
She died of brain cancer in 2012.
