Belakovskaia grew up in Odessa, Ukraine, and is a graduate of the Odessa Agricultural University. She came to the United States to play competitive chess. She recalls flying from Moscow to New York City and arriving with little money and knowing only a few English words. Belakovskaia's first job in the United States was slicing watermelons and winning money from the chess hustlers at Washington Square Park. She won $35 the first day, and soon the hustlers would no longer play her because they had lost too much money. Belakovskaia had a brief cameo in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" in 1993.