Chess legend Gaprindashvili turns 75

The vast achievements of Georgia’s five-time world chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili are being recognised this evening at a special ceremony in capital Tbilisi.

Tonight Gaprindashvili will be bestowed with the Cavalier of Sports of Georgia state title in recognition of the former global chess star’s 75th birthday later this year.

The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia announced it would award Gaprindashvili the state honour later today at the same time as a special star bearing the famous chess player’s name is unveiled in the yard of Tbilisi’s Chess Palace, which is also named after her.

The award and the unveiling of the star will be followed by an anniversary evening dedicated to Gaprindashvili’s life and career in sports at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre.

Born in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi in 1941, Gaprindashvili became the world’s first five-time chess champion in 1975 when she defeated another famous Georgian female player Nana Aleksandria in the final match for the title.

as awarded the Grandmaster title by the World Chess Federation in 1978 after she took part in and won men’s chess tournaments including the 1963-1964 Hastings Challengers Tournament in the United Kingdom and the 1977 Lone Pine International Tournament in California, United States.

She also won 11 chess Olympiad tournaments from 1963-1992 as well as four Women’s World Senior Championships in 1995, 2009, 2014 and 2015.

Furthermore, Gaprindashvili became chess champion of the Soviet Union five times from 1964 to 1985.

Gaprindashvili was officially recognised as the greatest Georgian female sportsperson of the 20th Century in 1999 and has served as honorary president of Georgia’s National Olympic Committee since 1996.

Her achievements have been recognised in Georgia with public honours, including naming Tbilisi’s Chess Palace after her in 2001 and granting the former player the Order of Excellence of Georgia in 2015.

The title of Cavalier of Sports of Georgia was established in 2012.

Over the recent years the honour has been granted to a number of successful sports figures including Georgia’s former National Rugby Team player Irakli Abuseridze, shooting sport athletes Vakhtang and Nino Salukvadze and former tennis player Aleksandre Metreveli.

Source: http://agenda.ge/news/57233/eng