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{{short description|Georgian chess grandmaster (born 1961)|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox chess player
|name = Maia Chiburdanidze<br/>{{lang|ka|მაია ჩიბურდანიძე}}
|image = Maia Tschiburdanidse 1984 Saloniki.jpg
|caption = Maia Chiburdanidze, Thessaloniki 1984
|country = Soviet Union → [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1961|1|17}}
|birth_place = [[Kutaisi]], [[Georgian SSR]], Soviet Union
|title = [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (1984)
|womensworldchampion = 1978–1991
|rating = [inactive]
|peakrating = 2560 (January 1988)
|peakranking = No. 48 (January 1988)
|FideID = 13600036
}}

'''Maia Chiburdanidze''' ({{lang-ka|მაია ჩიბურდანიძე}}; born 17 January 1961) is a [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] [[chess]] [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]]. She is the sixth [[Women's World Chess Championship|Women's World Chess Champion]], a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until 2010, when this record was broken by [[Hou Yifan]]. Chiburdanidze is the second woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by [[FIDE]], which took place in 1984. She has played on nine gold-medal-winning teams in the [[Women's Chess Olympiad]].<ref>Only her compatriot [[Nona Gaprindashvili]] has played on more: 11 Chess Olympiads. See [http://www.olimpbase.org/statisticsw/all_id12.html OlimpBase Overall Statistics]</ref>

==Early life and career==
Maia Chiburdanidze was born in [[Kutaisi]], [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic]], [[Soviet Union|USSR]], and started playing chess around the age of eight. She became the USSR girls' champion in 1976, and a year later she won the [[Women's Soviet Chess Championship|women's title]]. In 1977, Chiburdanidze was awarded the title of [[FIDE_titles#Woman_Grandmaster (WGM)|Woman Grandmaster]] by [[FIDE]].

Chiburdanidze won outright on her debut, at the [[Braşov]] women's international tournament of 1974, when she was only 13 years old and went on to win another tournament in [[Tbilisi]] in 1975 before entering the women's world championship cycle of 1976/77.

Chiburdanidze's style of play is solid, but aggressive and well grounded in classical principles; it was influenced by [[Eduard Gufeld]], a top Soviet trainer, who was her coach early in her career.

== Women's World Champion (1978–91) ==
Chiburdanidze finished second in the [[Tbilisi]] Women's [[Interzonal]] (1976), thereby qualifying for the 1977 candidates matches. She advanced through to the Candidates Final, where she beat [[Alla Kushnir]] by 7½–6½ to set up a world title match in [[Pitsunda]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], against [[Nona Gaprindashvili]], the reigning women's world champion. Chiburdanidze defeated Gaprindashvili by 8½–6½. 

She successfully defended her title four times. In 1981, Chiburdanidze retained her title by drawing 8–8 with [[Nana Alexandria]], in [[Borjomi]]/[[Tbilisi]]. Three years later, she played [[Irina Levitina]] in [[Volgograd]], Russia, and won 8½–5½. The next defense came against [[Elena Akhmilovskaya]] in [[Sofia]] in 1986, which Chiburdanidze won 8½–5½. In 1988 she beat [[Nana Ioseliani]] in [[Telavi]], Georgia, by 8½–7½.

FIDE awarded Chiburdanidze the title of [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] in 1984.<ref>{{citation |last=Gaige |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Gaige |year=1987 |title=Chess Personalia, A Biobibliography |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=0-7864-2353-6 |page=70}}</ref> She is the second woman, after Gaprindashvili, to be awarded the title.

== Losing the title ==
[[File:Ohra schaaktoernooi Maja Chiburdanidze tijdens haar partij met Pieterse, Bestanddeelnr 933-7153.jpg|thumb|upright|Chiburdanidze in 1986]]
[[Xie Jun]] of China won the right to challenge for the world championship in February 1991. Chiburdanidze lost her crown to the young Chinese player in [[Manila]] by 8½–6½. Her reign was the third longest, at 13 years, behind only that of the first women's champion, [[Vera Menchik]], who reigned for 17 years from 1927 until her death in 1944, and Gaprindashvili's 16 years.

Chiburdanidze has attempted to regain the world title but, with the rise of the Chinese women and the formidable [[László Polgár|Polgár sisters]], this has proved difficult and her best performance since 1991 has been first in the [[Tilburg, Netherlands|Tilburg]] Candidates tournament of 1994, losing the playoff to [[Zsuzsa Polgár]] by 5½–1½. Subsequently, despite not approving of the knockout format, she has entered the world championships of recent years. She reached the semi-finals in 2001, only to be knocked out by [[Zhu Chen]] of China, who went on to win the title. In 2004, Chiburdanidze again reached the semi-finals, where she lost to [[Antoaneta Stefanova]], who went on to win the title.

==Other chess achievements==
[[Image:Chiburdanidze Maia.jpg|thumb|Chiburdanidze, Heraklion 2007]]
Chiburdanidze is unimpressed with 'women's chess', and hopes for a time when there will be no need for men's and women's tournaments.<ref>[http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/rankfile/art_03.htm Chiburdanidze's visit to the U.S. during Perestroika] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231206/http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/rankfile/art_03.htm |date=3 March 2016 }}, by Wendy Starbuck at chessdryad.com</ref> She has played extensively in "men's" tournaments around the world and her best form was seen in the 1980s and early 1990s. She was 1st in tournaments in New Delhi (1984)<ref>[https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/New_Delhi_1984/22710 New Delhi 1984]</ref> and Banja Luka (1985),<ref>[https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Banja_Luka_1985/19688 Banja Luka 1985]</ref> finished third in Bilbao (1987)<ref>[https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Bilbao_1987/20416 Bilbao 1987]</ref> with a 2616 performance rating against elite players while equalising in an 8 game match<ref>[https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Subotica_m_1986/19950 Subotica 1986]</ref> against GM [[Petar Popović (chess player)|Petar Popović]] who had a rating of 2545 and in the next decade she finished 1st in Belgrade (1992),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belgrade 1992 - 365Chess.com Tournaments |url=https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Belgrade_1992/17220 |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=www.365chess.com}}</ref> Vienna (1993),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women-Veterans 1993 - 365Chess.com Tournaments |url=https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Women-Veterans_1993/16948 |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=www.365chess.com}}</ref> and Lippstadt (1995,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lippstadt 1995 - 365Chess.com Tournaments |url=https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Lippstadt_1995/14635 |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=www.365chess.com}}</ref> 1996,<ref>[https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Lippstadt_1996/13347 Lippstadt 1996]</ref> 1997<ref>[https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Lippstadt_1997/11908 Lippstadt 1997]</ref>).

Chiburdanidze was the first woman to win an elite round-robin tournament, winning two in the mid-1980s.

She was a key member of the [[USSR]] team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s and, when Georgia achieved independence from the [[Soviet Union]] in 1990, she played board 1 for the new Georgian national team that won four gold medals, in 1992, 1994, 1996 and 2008.

She also played in the European Team Championships of 1997 when Georgia won the gold medal and in the 1st Europe v Asia Intercontinental rapidplay match which was held in [[Batumi]] (Georgia) in September 2001. Asia won the women's section by 21½–10½ with Maia contributing 3½.
In 2008 Dresden Olympiad, she played on board 1, for Georgia, that won the gold medal (1st place), and she also won gold medal for best performance (2715 pt).<ref>[http://chess-results.com/tnr16315.aspx?lan=1&art=5&flag=30 2008 Dresden Olympiad]</ref> As of 2025, she has not played competitively since July, 2012.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://ratings.fide.com/calculations.phtml?id_number=13600036&period=2012-07-01&rating=1 |title=Chiburdanidze, Maia GEO Individual Calculations Chess Ratings FIDE}}</ref>

==Other==
Chiburdanidze has been honoured many times by her country, and several postage stamps have been designed to celebrate her chess achievements. [[Mongolia]] issued a commemorative stamp in 1986 which illustrates a position in one of her games from the 1984 world championship match against [[Irina Levitina]]. She was inducted into the [[World Chess Hall of Fame]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/maya-chiburdanidze|title=Maya Chiburdanidze|website=[[World Chess Hall of Fame]]|date=23 March 2017}}</ref>

In 2021, Chiburdanidze appeared in the documentary ''Glory to the Queen'' alongside [[Nana Alexandria]], [[Nona Gaprindashvili]], and [[Nana Ioseliani]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glory to the Queen |url=https://www.austrianfilms.com/film/glory_to_the_queen |access-date=2024-10-13 |website=Austrian Films |language=}}</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Further reading==
*{{citation |title=Maia Chiburdanidze |magazine=[[New In Chess]] |issue=#7 |year=1986 |pages=66–68}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Maia Chiburdanidze}}
* {{FIDE}}
* {{365Chess.com player|Maia_Chiburdanidze}}
* {{Chessgames player|16894}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
| before= [[Nona Gaprindashvili]]
| title= [[Women's World Chess Champion]]
| years= 1978–1991
| after= [[Xie Jun]]
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Women's World Chess Championships}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Georgian GMs}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiburdanidze, Maia}}
[[Category:1961 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Chess Grandmasters]]
[[Category:Female chess grandmasters]]
[[Category:Chess Woman Grandmasters]]
[[Category:Women's world chess champions]]
[[Category:Female chess players from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Chess players from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Soviet female chess players]]
[[Category:Soviet chess players]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Kutaisi]]