'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
She was the U.S. women's chess champion three times in the space of five years, played the great Maya Chiburdanidze for the women's world crown in 1986 and was a star on Olympiad teams for both her native Soviet Union and her adopted American homeland. But Elena Akhmilovskaya, who died last week at the too-young age of 55 after a long battle with brain cancer, may be best remembered for her starring role in a dramatic Cold War love story.
