On May the 3rd 1941, in the middle of the World War, less then two months before the start of Operation Barbarossa, in a small city of Zugdidi in Georgia (Soviet Union), legendary Nona Gaprindashvili was born.

You can only imagine under which circumstances did Nona start her chess path.

And how difficult it must have been to pursue chess as a female from a small city in the middle of the 20th century.

However, Nona couldn’t have been bothered by such trivial things and would become one of the strongest female chess players in the history of chess.

She dominated female chess in the 1962-1978 period – she won the female World Championship five times.

She also won a number of Soviet Female Championship and performed successfully at Women Chess Olympiads.

As many celebrated female chess players after her, Nona didn’t care only for female titles and never hesitated to try her strength against the opposite gender as well.

She performed successfully in men tournament for a decade. She even won two strong tournaments – Hastings 1963/1964 and Lone Pine 1977.

The crown of her career definitely came in 1980, when she was awarded the title of Grandmaster.

The first women in history to become one, Nona definitely paved the way for other successful women players after her, like Maia Chiburdanidze, Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan.

Oh, have I mentioned she played well until she was 70?

Happy birthday number 77, Nona!!

(If you like posts as these, check our complete list of Chess Birthdays )