Nona Gaprindashvili

Who is Nona Gaprindashvili?

Nona Terentievna Gaprindashvili is a Georgian chess player, the sixth women's world chess champion, and first female Grandmaster. Born in Zugdidi, Georgia, she was the strongest female player of her generation.

In 1961, aged 20, Gaprindashvili won the fourth women's Candidates Tournament, setting up a title match against Russian world champion Elisabeth Bykova. She won the match easily, with a final score of 9-2, and went on to defend her title successfully four times: three times against Alla Kushnir and once against fellow Georgian Nana Alexandria. She finally lost her crown in 1978 to another Georgian, 17-year-old Maia Chiburdanidze, by a score of 6½–8½.

Gaprindashvili played for Soviet Union in the Chess Olympiads of 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990, and for Georgia in 1992. She was one of the contributing players of the USSR team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s. She won as many as 25 medals, among which 11 team gold medals and 9 individual gold medals. At the Olympiad of Dubai 1986 she won all the ten games she played.