Washington Post: How Georgian Women Conquered the Chess World

You’ve probably already heard of the Netflix series, The Queen’s Gambit, which follows the life of a young chess prodigy Beth Harmon as she triumphs among the world’s top Grandmasters, all the while battling addiction, the pressures of fame, and internal demons.

Yet the only real female chess champion featured in The Queen’s Gambit is Nona Gaprindashvili, Georgia’s legendary chess player, who became the Women’s World Chess Champion five times. 

In her article for the Washington Post, Inna Lazareva parallels Gaprindashvili’s Cold War-era rise to the top of the chess world to the fictional Beth Harmon of The Queen’s Gambit. 

“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'”, writes Lazareva.

Born in the Georgian city of Zugdidi in 1941, Gaprindashvili was a child chess prodigy.  In 1954, at the age of 12, she found herself competing for the Zugdidi city team at the Georgian National Championships, hosted in the seaside town of Batumi. At the age of 21, Gaprindashvili won her first World Women’s Chess Championship title. She became the world’s first female Grandmaster, the highest title awarded to chess players, at the age of 37. 

Gaprindashvili’s technique and her fighting spirit continue to amaze other chess players around the globe. Lazareva enumerates a number of prominent players from Georgia who, inspired by Gaprindashvili’s success, have left a huge mark on the chess world too. 

One is 17-year-old Kato Pipia, who won the World Schools Championship for online chess in October, held with students from 37 countries. Another, writes Lazareva, 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, idolized Gaprindashvili growing up, only to beat her in 1978, taking the title of Women’s World Chess Champion and holding onto 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)”, adds Lazareva.

Lazareva also mentions 22-year-old Nino Khomeriki, who achieved the ranking of Woman Grandmaster in 2019.

The coronavirus pandemic is clearly affecting the chess world. More and more big events are being canceled as organizers acknowledge the risks involved in traveling.

“As the pandemic rages, the chess clocks in Tbilisi’s cavernous chess palace, dedicated to Gaprindashvili, are silent. The hall, once overflowing with spectators, stands empty. Yellowing posters of bygone chess superstars are piled up, gathering dust and mildew”, writes Lazareva.

See the full article here.