The Washington Post: 'Georgian women ruled chess in the Soviet era. A new generation chases the same ‘Queen’s Gambit’ glory'

The Washington Post has published an article about Georgian female chess players, starting with 17-year-old Kato Pipia who has recently won the World Schools Championship for online chess and ending with the legendary chess player Nona Gaprindashvili.

For decades, tiny Georgia has been punching above its weight on the global chess scene. And for Georgian women, the trail was blazed by its own heroine, Nona Gaprindashvili, whose Cold War-era rise to the top of the chess world has its own parallels to the fictional Beth Harmon of “The Queen’s Gambit”", wrote The Washington Post.

Gaprindashvili in 1978 made history by becoming the first woman to earn the ranking of grandmaster. At 79, she still plays tournaments. She won the women’s 65 and older section at the World Senior championship in Bucharest, Romania, in November 2019 'and inspires a new generation of girls and young women in a nation where a chess champion can get star status'.

Another successful Georgian female chess player that The Washington Post mentioned is Nana Alexandria, who won the Soviet Union’s women’s championship three times before the age of 20 and became a “woman international grandmaster,” among other titles. 

Another, Maia Chiburdanidze, idolised Gaprindashvili growing up, only to beat her in 1978, taking the title of women’s world chess champion and holding on to it for 13 years. Chiburdanidze became the second woman after Gaprindashvili to become a grandmaster. 

To date, out of 37 women who have earned the title of grandmaster, six are Georgian.

Read the full story here.