Nona Gaprindashvili ( ka, ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი; born 3 May 1941) is a former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and Georgian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player, and the first woman ever to be awarded the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

title Grandmaster in 1978. She was the fifth

women's world chess champion The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, whe ...

(1962–1978).

Career

In 1961, aged 20, Gaprindashvili won the fourth women's Candidates Tournament, setting up a title match against world champion

Elisaveta Bykova Elisaveta Ivanovna Bykova (or ''Elisabeth Bykova'', Russian: Елизаве́та Ива́новна Бы́кова; 4 November 1913 – 8 March 1989) was a Soviet chess player and twice Women's World Chess Champion, from 1953 until 1956, and ...

. She won the match easily, with a final score of 9-2 (+7−0=4), and went on to defend her title successfully four times: three times against Alla Kushnir (1965: 10–6; 1969: 12–7; 1972: 12–11) and once against

Nana Alexandria Nana Alexandria ( ka, ნანა გიორგის ასული ალექსანდრია, ''Nana Giorgis asuli Aleksandria''; born 13 October 1949) is a Georgian chess player. A three-time Soviet women's champion, she was the c ...

(1975: 9–4). She finally lost her crown in 1978 to another Georgian, 17-year-old

Maia Chiburdanidze Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until 2 ...

, by a score of 6½–8½ (+2−4=9). Gaprindashvili played for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in the Women's 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 The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...

team that dominated the Women's Olympiads of the 1980s. She won 25 medals, including eleven team gold medals and nine individual gold medals. At the Olympiad of Dubai 1986 she won all ten games she played. Gaprindashvili was a five-time winner of the Women's Soviet Championship: in 1964, 1973, 1981, 1983, and 1985. During her career, Gaprindashvili successfully competed in men's tournaments, winning amongst others the Hastings Challengers tournament in 1963/4. She tied for second place at

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Prov ...

in 1976, tied for first place at Lone Pine in 1977, and tied for second at

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

in 1978. Her performance at Lone Pine made her the first woman ever to earn a norm for the title of

International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally it ha ...

. Although she did not achieve all of the norm requirements, she became the first woman to receive the International Grandmaster title from FIDE, in 1978. In 1995, Gaprindashvili won the Women's World Senior Championship for the first time. She is the only female World Chess Champion to obtain the World Senior title as well. Gaprindashvili won the Senior title also in 2009, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 (in the 65+ division since 2014). She also won the European Women's Seniors Championship in 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 (in the 65+ division since 2014). In 2005, at age 64, Gaprindashvili won the BDO Chess Tournament held in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

, the Netherlands, with a score of 6½/10 points and a performance rating of 2510. In 2021, Gaprindashvili appeared in the documentary ''Glory to the Queen,'' alongside

and

Nana Ioseliani Nana Ioseliani ( ka, ნანა იოსელიანი; born 12 February 1962) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded by FIDE the Woman Grandmaster title in 1980 and the International Master title in 1993. Already in 1978 she was ...

Honors and awards

Gaprindashvili was awarded the

Presidential Order of Excellence The Presidential Order of Excellence is an award given by the President of Georgia to individuals in culture, education, science, art, sport, and other fields, for significant achievements and meritorious service for Georgia. The award was esta ...

in 2015 by President of Georgia

Giorgi Margvelashvili Giorgi Margvelashvili ( ka, გიორგი მარგველაშვილი; born 4 September 1969) is a Georgian academic and politician who was the fourth President of Georgia, in office from 17 November 2013 to 16 December 2018. ...

for "her outstanding contribution to the country and nation" and "representing Georgia at an international level". In 2013, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame. To honor her 75th birthday, on 3 May 2016, her star was opened near the Chess Palace. Also in 2016, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov gave her a representation of Caïssa, in the shape of a chess queen, made by the Lobortas Classic Jewelry House. "Nona" is a perfume named after her. The bottle is shaped like a chess queen.

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

's chess palace is dedicated to Gaprindashvili.

Lawsuit

Gaprindashvili was very briefly mentioned in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

series '' The Queen's Gambit'', in which it was incorrectly stated that she had never played competitive chess against men. Gaprindashvili characterized this departure from reality as "dishonouring ... misinformation." She filed a lawsuit against Netflix for US$5 million for

false light In US law, false light is a tort concerning privacy that is similar to the tort of defamation. The privacy laws in the United States include a non-public person's right to protection from publicity that creates an untrue or misleading impr ...

invasion of privacy and

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

on 16 September 2021. In September 2022 Netflix settled with Gaprindashvili on undisclosed terms.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaprindashvili, Nona 1941 births Living people Women's world chess champions Chess grandmasters Female chess grandmasters Chess woman grandmasters World Senior Chess Champions Female chess players from Georgia (country) Soviet female chess players People from Zugdidi Burevestnik (sports society) athletes Recipients of the Presidential Order of Excellence