Washington Post Dedicates Article to Legendary Georgian Women Chess Players

"Georgian women ruled chess in the Soviet era. A new generation chases the same 'Queen Gambit' Glory" - the Washington Post publishes an extensive article with this headline.

The article reads about the legendary Georgian women chess players, the development of the history of chess in Georgia, the phenomenal achievements of women and the successes of the new generation.

The article begins with the story of 17-year-old Kato Pipia. She won the School Online World Student Championship in October 2020 and brought new success to Georgian women's chess.

''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,”-We read in the article, an important part of which is dedicated to the queen of chess, Nona Gaprindashvili.

According to the article, Nona went down in history in 1978 as the first woman to receive the title of Grandmaster. The queen retains her positions even at the age of 79 and still participates with great success in veteran chess tournaments. She is still the current world champion among seniors.

To prepare the article, Washington Post journalist Inna Lazareva paid a special visit to Tbilisi and personally met the Georgian legend. In an interview with a journalist, Nona Gaprindashvili recalls the period of her youth, the years when the title of Grand Master and many other historical victories gained her the greatest recognition.

The Washington Post writes that Nona Gaprindashvili's victory in the Soviet era gave great impetus to women chess players. Journalists cite the success of Nana Alexandria and Maia Chiburdanidze as examples of this. Alexandria won the Soviet Women's Championship three times before she was 20 years old.

As for Maia Chiburdanidze, in the match of the World Championship held in Bichvinta in 1978, the 17-year-old athlete defeated the current world champion, 37-year-old Nona Gaprindashvili and went down in history as the youngest world champion among both men and women. It should be noted that this was the first and last match between Nona and Maia, where they competed for the title of world champion. Maia Chiburdanidze held this title for 13 years.

The article mentions other legendary Georgian female chess players, including Nana Ioseliani. Describes their victories, achievements, interesting stories and difficulties typical of their career, when chess had a geopolitical load during the Cold War and Georgian women had to overcome great difficulties while playing for the Soviet team.