S3 E4 Maia Chiburdanidze v. O. Andreieva (1973)

This week, we are looking (at the time) the youngest Women’s World Champion, a 13-time Olympiad Gold Medal Winner, the second Woman in history to be awarded the Grandmaster title, and a Women’s World Champion for 13 years - Maia Chiburdanidze. 

She was born in Kutaisi of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR in 1961 where she learned to play chess at the age of 8. 

She played (and won) the 1974 at the Brasov women’s international tournament, when she was 13 years old.

At the age of 15, she won the USSR Girls’ Championship of 1976. The next year, at the age of 16, she won the USSR Womens’ Championship with a score of 13 out of 17.

Later that same year, she played in the Tbilisi Women’s Interzonal tournament. At the time, there were 2 interzonal tournaments - one in Roosendaal, Netherlands the other in Tbilisi, USSR. At each tournament, the top three finishers qualified for the Women's Candidates match. 

In 1986 - she won by the same score of 8 ½ to 5 ½ in 14 games to Elena Akhmilovskaya (again, of the Soviet Union). Winning the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 8th games, only losing in game 9. 

The January 1988 FIDE top 100 players - showed Maia’s peak rating as the 45th highest rated player in the world at 2560. Later that year, she defended her title once again against Nana Ioseliani (also of the Soviet Union). This was a close match where Chiburdanidze edged out an 8 ½ to 7 ½ victory. Maia had lost the 2nd to last game, reducing her lead to 1 point with 1 game to go.

She tried to reclaim her title in 1993, but didn’t make it out of the Candidates tournament (placing 3rd). She reached the finals of the 1995 Candidates tournament, but lost to Susan Polgar. In 1997, she tried again, placing 4th in the Candidates tournament. 

The structure was changed to a 64 person knockout tournament in 2000. That year, she made it to Round 2 before being knocked out. In 2001 and 2004, she made it to the Semi Finals. 2006, she made it to the Quarterfinals. 2008, she lost in the 1st round. And in her last Candidates tournament in 2010, she was knocked out after the 2nd round. 

During her playing career, she was not only a World Champion and perpetual Candidate player, she also participated in a record breaking number of Chess Olympiads. 

At the 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th Women’s Olympiad, she was on Board 1 of the Soviet Union team winning gold every time. 

The 28th and 29th Olympiad, she finished in 2nd for the Soviet Union, earning silver. 

After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Maia became the team lead of the newly formed Georgian Team. While at the helm, her team took home the gold at the 30th, 31st, 32nd, and 38th Olympiads. 

At the 33rd Olympiad, Georgia took home Bronze and at the 34th, they took home Silver. 

For this week, we are turning the clocks back 50 years to the USSR Women’s Championship of 1973, one of Maia’s first tournaments when she was only 12 years old. 

1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.cxd4 d6 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Nc3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 dxe5 9.d5 e4 10.Ng5 Ne5 11.Nxe4 Qc7 12.Qd4 Bd7 13.Ba3 f6 14.d6 Qc6 15.dxe7 Bxe7 16.Bxe7 Kxe7  17.Qb4 Kf7 18.f4 Rhe8 19.fxe5 Rxe5 20.O-O-O Rxe4 21.Rxd7+ Ke8 22.Re7+ 1-0

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1429266

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maia_Chiburdanidze 

https://blindfoldchesspodcast.com/