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After fleeing anti-Semitic Russia with her family eight years ago, a teenage Jewish emigre wonders whether her opportunities as a world-class chess player have been helped or hindered by coming to America.

Keeping her rank as a master — an all-star of the chess world — hasn't been easy for Jennie Frenklakh, 17, of Marina, who played her first competition at the age of 6 in her native Belarus. The Monterey Peninsula teen has a handicap; she is one of only a few competitive players with neither a regular coach nor a sponsor.

Her parents say there aren't many grand masters — the all-stars of chess all-stars — in their area who would be willing to mentor Jennie for less than $35 a lesson, an indulgence for an immigrant family still struggling to create their lives anew.

Jennie sometimes drives more than 100 miles for a match at the nearest chess club in Palo Alto. Otherwise, she finds her only real competition on the Internet.

As she observes former opponents from Belarus rise in the international ranks, Jennie often thinks she would be a better player had her family stayed in the former Soviet Union, where the government subsidizes and grooms its young chess talent. However, she actually has less competition barring her from international matches than she did in her native land because far fewer American girls per capita are interested in the game.

Still, "just knowing I'm going to play against people who play seven hours a day with a coach is worrisome," she admits.

But this is no time for defeatist thoughts: This summer Jennie will journey to Poland to compete in her sixth Junior World Championship. She tied for eighth place last year. And though her world rank has dropped since then, she aims for the gold this year.

Her father, Lev Frenklakh, encourages Jennie's competitive edge. Having competed during his youth, he too knows the desire to win.

"For a Jewish kid in Russia, chess was the only way to move forward," said Frenklakh, who also plays the game. It wasn't easy for a Jew to be accepted in other tournament events, he said.

"You pick the area where you can get rough. Chess is art, science and sport. You have to read a lot and study," he said, noting that today more than 50 percent of U.S. chess players are Jewish. A high percentage of chess players from the former Soviet Union also are Jewish. And chess is always big news in the Los Angeles-based Russian-language newspaper, Panorama.

But aside from the chess scene, the lack of opportunities for Jews in the former Soviet Union had become unbearable in the 1980s.

"You have a slave inside you. You aren't able to take a job or enter a university because of it," said Frenklakh, who was once passed over for 125 government-interpreter openings, though he claims to have been the top candidate among only 24 who applied for the international jobs.

Anti-Semitism is on "an everyday basis," he said. "I see nothing OK with Russia. It will never be. It's not the land for the Jews."

The Frenklakhs fled with thousands of others when former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev opened the borders. They stayed with a relative in Sweden while looking for a country to call home.

"It's very scary to leave with two [young] kids and go nowhere," Frenklakh recalled. "We were trying to go somewhere."

In 1989, a Massachusetts synagogue sponsored the family to come here.

Frenklakh and his wife, Zoya, now teach Russian at the Monterey Defense Language Institute. They are thankful for the new start but don't earn enough to groom their teen chess queen Soviet-style. And neither the U.S. government nor any corporation has volunteered to pay her way to competitions.

Instead, a network of about 50 friends and chess acquaintances chaperone Jennie to matches overseas. Some of the tournament organizers who have come to know the Frenklakhs invite Jennie to share their hotel suites.

"It took more than a village for Jennie to become a master," her father jokes.

The Poland games could be her last Junior World Championship competition; college will undoubtedly steer her attentions from the chessboard to the textbook. However, Frenklakh says that won't stop her from trying for adult competition.

While she still wagers on winning a gold medal in Poland, for now, Jennie says she will be content to return with the satisfaction of having played well.