Maya Chiburdanidze
Maya Chiburdanidze was born on January 17, 1961 in Kutaisi, Georgia. She started playing chess around the age of 8. In 1974, when she was only 13 years old, she won the Brasov women's international tournament. She showed she was a serious contender for the world title by finishing in 2nd place in the Tbilisi Women's Interzonal of 1976, thereby qualifying for the 1977 candidates matches. She made it all the way to the Candidates Final where she defeated Alla Kushnir 7.5-6.5 to setup a world title match in Bichvinta, Georgia with the reigning Women's World Champion, Nona Gaprindashvili. Chiburdanize stunned the world of women's chess by winning the match with a score of 8.5 to 6.5. She became the 7th women's world chess champion at the age of 17, the youngest woman ever to do so.
Even at such a young age, she proved to be a formidable champion as she successfully defended her title on no fewer than four occasions. In 1981, she played a match in Borjomi/Tbilisi against Nana Alexandria. The match was drawn 8-8, but she kept her title. Three years later she played Irina Levitina in Volgograd, Russia and this time she won convincingly by a score of 8-5. Her next challenge came in 1986 from Elena Akhmilovskaya. The match took place in Sofia with Chiburdanidze winning by a score of 8.5-5.5. In 1988 she retained her title by barely winning a match in Telavi, Georgia against Nana Ioseliani. The final score was 8.5-7.5. In February of 1991, Xie Jun of China earned the right to play for the world championship title in Manila. To the suprise of everyone, Chiburdanidze lost her title to the young Chinese player by a score of 8.5-6.5.
She has attempted to win the title back, but with the rise of Chinese women and the Polgar sisters, this has been very difficult. Since 1991, her best performance has been finishing 1st in the Tilburg Candidates tournament in 1994. However, she lost the playoff to Susan Polgar by a score of 5.5-1.5. In 2001, she reached the semi-finals of the World Championships, but was knocked out by Zhu Chen from China who went on to win the title. In 2004, she reached the semi-finals once again, but was defeated by Antoaneta Stefanova who went on to win the title.
Chiburdanidze was a vital member of the USSR team that dominated the women's Chess Olympiads of the 1980s. When Georgia won independence from the Soviet Union in 1990, she played board 1 for the Georgian national team that won three gold medals in the early 1990s. She has been honored many times by her country. Several postage stamps have been designed to celebrate her chess accomplishments. In 1986, Mongolia issued a commemorative stamp that illustrates a position in one of her games from the 1984 World Championship match against Irina Levitina.
Like many top women players, Chiburdanidze is not very impressed with women's chess in general. She prefers to play chess with men. She has played extensively in men's tournaments around the world. Her best form was seen in the 1980s and early 1990s. She has finished in 1st place in tournaments in New Delhi (1984), Banja Luka (1985), Belgrade (1992), Vienna (1993), and in Lippstadt (1995). She does play against other women in the Olympiads. She has won gold medals for Georgia in 1992, 1994, and 1996. She also participated in the European Team Championships of 1997 when Georgia won the gold medal and in the 1st Europe vs Asia Intercontinental rapid-play match which was held in Batumi, Georgia in September of 2001. Asia won the women's section by 21.5-10.5 with Chiburdanidze contributing 3.5 points. On the April 2005 FIDE rating list, she had an ELO of 2509 making her the 4th highest rated female player in the world.
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