 She first began to read when she was two-and-a-half years old and at the age of three years and nine months, played for the first time in a chess tournament among boys under twelve, enabling her to become a rated chess-player.Dembo's mother Nadezhda Fokina is a USSR Master of Sports in chess, a linguist, chess journalist and trainer.In the past she won gold and silver medals in the USSR Chess Championships and was Russian Champion at 'Under 20' level in 1967.