INSIDE:

Mazel
Toy!

. . . page 49

LESLIE ZACK

College Intern

F

or a little girl, Louiza
Livschitz of West
Bloomfield has made very
smart moves in all the right
directions. The 9-year-old chess prodi-
gy is just as dedicated to chess as
Olympic athletes are to their sport.
She spends 20 hours a week study-
ing strategies and tactics with her
father/coach, Leonard Livschitz, who
_ was Ukrainian national chess team
coach 1985-1989. Now he works as
an automotive supplier.
"We came to America in 1991 as
political refugees from Ukraine," said
Louiza's mother, Victoria.
When Louiza is not playing chess,
she is doing her homework from
Pleasant Lake Elementary School in
West Bloomfield, or practicing gym-
nastics, karate and swimming.
Victoria, who works in the comput-
er industry, taught her daughter to
play chess when she was 4. "It was an
exceptional game for her. She caught

.

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The child of immigrants
from Ukraine, Louiza
Livschitz is, at age 9,

part of the chess elite.

Louiza, at age 9, preparing for competition.

*TN

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