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Born: 1st June 1988, Telavi, Georgia
FIDE Title: GM
FIDE ID: 13602640
Federation: Georgia
Rating: 2518 (Jun 2014)
Peak rating: 2531 (Jun 2013)
World rank (women): 12 |
Born on the 1st of June, when Georgia celebrates the Children's Day, and with a name that literally means “beautiful” in Italian language, Bella brought the inborn coincidences into a tangible reality. The agility, curiosity and thirst for knowledge combined with the thoughtful kindness made the Georgian who she is: a GM, a happy mother and a Dr. soon. Having a fulfilled life in both personal and professional aspects is not an easy task for everyone but Bella proved that yes, she can.
In 2004, the Georgian brought home the gold medal from the World Youth Championship U16 and five years later she won the prestigious International Women Open “Maia Chiburdanidze Cup”. Furthermore, in a country where every lady has a chess set in her bottom drawer, claiming the first position in the 2012 National Championship is certainly a result to remember. Consequently, Bella became a constant presence in the redoubtable Georgian team, helping her country to acquire a serious number of medals. But “the result I consider the best one in my career so far” is the convincing win of the FIDE Women Grand Prix from Geneva, 2013.
To have such outstanding achievements, to steadily remain around the top, one needs a lot of time, dedication and hard working. Bella did all of that and was rewarded with much more than chess results. She is happily married to a former chess player, IM Vakhtang Sulashvili, and they have a daughter whose name is just as original as her mother's: Mariami. And still, Bella found the time to graduate from Tbilisi State University and now she is studying again in the Georgian Technical University, Faculty of Business – Engineering.
Besides her inner powers and the family support, what may give Bella the energy to keep on going with the same successful pace, is the bunch of the books she is constantly reading during tournaments. She is fond of Dostoyevsky's writings, but she also likes the books of Stephen King or those written directly in Georgian by Dochanashvili.
Coming from the same province where the 2014 Lopota FIDE GP will take place (Telavi is situated in the same Kakheti region), Bella will try to use in her advantage the familiar surroundings (a theme about which she is currently writing for her university, entitled “Regional Tourism in Georgia”), proving that she has the ability and the potential to win yet another Women Grand Prix.
A small example of Bella's strength (Viktorija Cmilyte – Bella Khotenashvili, Geneva WGP 2013):
 Black to moveThe positional sacrifice that Bella employed fully deserves an exclamation mark, or maybe two?!
18...Ne5! with full steam ahead and no fear of giving something to get much more in return; 19.dxe5 fxe5 – sacrifice accepted but at great costs: the black pawns' army became unstoppable and soon the Georgian GM got the full point.
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