Natalia Zhukova is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the FIDE (World Chess Federation) titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster. She was born on June 5, 1979 in Dresden, East Germany. Zhukova twice won the European Individual Women's Championship in 2000 and 2015.
Zhukova's career in competitive chess dates back to her youth. As a member of the Ukrainian team, she won the Under-16 Girls' event of the World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad in 1994. In the same year, she took home the Girl's U16 World Youth Chess Championship. In 1996, Zhukova won the Girl's U18 World Youth Chess Championship.
Zhukova made quite a splash in the European individual women’s chess tournament. She won the title in Batumi in 2000 and then again in 2015 in Chakvi. Zhukova also played for the gold medal-winning Ukrainian team in the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2006. In addition, she competed for Ukraine at the Women's European Team Chess Championship, collecting three team silver medals and one individual bronze.
On the world stage, Zhukova tied for first through third place in the Women’s World Chess Championship in 2001. That year, she advanced to the last sixteen where she was knocked out by Zhu Chen.
She married fellow Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk in 2012 and they have a daughter. Separately, she has a son born in 2008. In 2015, Zhukova was involved in a controversy when she refused to play in the Women's World Chess Championship in Tehran because of the country's law that women must wear a headscarf.
Zhukova's highest world ratings to date for standard, rapid, and blitz chess are 2499 in July 2000, 2452 in July 2014, and 2442 in October 2015, respectively. Her best Women's World ranking is 10th, which she achieved in July and October 2000.