Georgia will host world class chess event
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A myriad of the world’s top female chess players are coming to Georgia to take part in a prestigious invitation-only competition.
Four world champions, five Olympic winners and seven of the world’s top ten chess players will take part in the Women’s Grand Prix from June 18 to July 2.
Participants will gather at the Lopota Resort, a beautiful complex around Lopota Lake in Eastern Georgia.
The Women's Grand Prix 2013–14 is a series of six chess tournaments exclusively for women, which form part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2015. Georgia was selected to host the fifth phase of the Grand Prix.
The winner of the Grand Prix will challenge the 2014 Women's World Chess champion in a ten-game match. Should the Grand Prix winner be the 2014 World Champion, the Grand Prix runner-up will play the 2015 championship.
Eighteen female players, including two Georgians, were selected to compete in these tournaments.
Total prize money had increased to €60,000 (143,000 GE) per single Grand Prix and €90,000 (214,000 GEL) for the overall Grand Prix.
For the first time in Georgia’s chess history, capital city Tbilisi is hosting the world Grand Prix 2014-2015 – one of the world’s most prestigious chess events.
Georgia’s female chess team has been crowned world champions after winning the final game in the World Women's Team Chess Championship against host nation China today.
Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili has awarded five-time world chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili with the Order of Excellence. The President said Gaprindashvili was recognised for her "outstanding contribution to the country and nation” and "representing Georgia at an international level”.