Maya Chiburdanidze

Inducted 2014 1961 - Present

Georgia

Biography

Maya Chiburdanidze’s introspective, exceptional play earned her a place at the top of women’s chess from a young age. In 1977, she won the U.S.S.R. Women’s Chess Championship. The following year she defeated Nona Gaprindashvili in the Women’s World Chess Championship, becoming the new World Champion at age seventeen. Chiburdanidze would defend her title four times, finally losing it in 1991 to Xie Jun. A pioneer in women’s chess, in 1984 Chiburdanidze become only the second woman to earn the title of Grandmaster. Additionally, she was a member of the Soviet and later Georgian women’s teams that dominated the Women’s Chess Olympiads through the 1980s and 1990s, winning nine team gold medals and four individual gold medals on Board 1.

Notable Games

Maia Chiburdanidze vs. Nigel Short

1-0 Dortmund Dortmund FRG 1983 Round: 5 ECO: B16

Maya Chiburdanidze (Georgia) at the 1994 Moscow, Russia, Chess Olympiad (1994) | Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame, gift of the U.S. Chess Trust