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Nona Gaprindashvili is a Georgian chess player, born in 1941. She grew up in a family that loved to play all kinds of games, from football, to billiards. But chess was Gaprindashvili's favourite game. 

At age 12 Gaprindashvili was invited to compete as part of the Zugdidi City team, at the Georgian National Chess championship, despite not even applying to take part. The team were looking for a final teammate, and had heard rumours of a young girl who lived locally, and was extremely skilled in chess. 

It was at this championship that Gaprindashvili was noticed by a renowned Georgian chess coach, Vakhtang Karseladze. He convinced her parents to move to the countries capital, Tbilisi, so she could begin training at a prestigious chess school there. 

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Two years later, Gaprindashvili won the Women’s Georgian Chess Championship title in 1956, also winning this title three more times in 1959, 1960 and 1961.  

Gaprindashvili's shrewd and aggressive style of play led her to many more successes, and she soon held the title of Women’s world champion, which she maintained from 1962-78. 

She played played with most of the grandmasters and champions of her times, all of which were men. To compete alongside men, she had to work much harder, due to the fact male opponents would put in an extra effort to see her off, as losing to a woman was considered humiliating. 

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Gaprindashvili is the first woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by the international chess federation. This award was given to her after an extremely impressive performance in the 1977 Lone Pine chess tournament, where she defeated four Grandmasters, and shared first place. 

 

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