In 2013 Karina Skorobahatko became the winner of the Sozonov Award established by the Chess for Children Foundation. In an interview for the website “DOU” – the largest community of IT specialists in Ukraine – Karina talked about her path to IT, her chess childhood and Sozonov award as well as how chess helps her in her work and in solving the most difficult problems.
Karina Skorobahatko currently works as an Agile Project Manager at the P2H company.
“My parents took me to a chess class for the first time when I was about 4 years old, a year before I started school. My first trainer, Dmytro Semenov, liked to play with the little ones and got interested in coaching me precisely because of the game approach. There were many children, there was someone to communicate with, play with, stay after classes – in short, it was “not stressful” for me to go there,” – Karina remembered.
“Like everyone else, I started with the 5th chess rank, then performed the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and then the 1st rank. In order to receive the next rank — Candidate to Master in Chess — certain standards must be met. At some point, when I won the Kyiv chess championship, I received the rank of a Candidate to Master in Chess… For more than 10 years now, the Award named after Evgeniy Sozonov has been operating in Ukraine by Chess For Children Foundation, and I was lucky to be the first child to receive it. It happened when I was 13 years old.”
“My experience in chess had a significant impact on the development of my communication skills and the acquisition of a wide circle of communication. At my previous workplace, I conducted chess master classes, and in general, I often participate in such activities. In one charitable organisation by a church I led a chess club with the aim of getting children interested. Later, I started getting requests for individual classes, and even before Covid pandemia I was conducting individual lessons.” – Karina recalled her experience.
The girl shared her success in obtaining a higher education and learning several foreign languages, as well as revealed some secrets of her productivity, which help her find more effective solutions in the performance of tasks. This material will be especially interesting for young chess players, who want to learn how playing chess can help in their future profession.
The full version of the article can be viewed at the link on the DOU website, information on the Sozonov Award in 2013 is available at our website.