The Most Famous
CHESS PLAYERS from Georgia
This page contains a list of the greatest Georgian Chess Players. The pantheon dataset contains 461 Chess Players, 12 of which were born in Georgia. This makes Georgia the birth place of the 9th most number of Chess Players behind Germany, and United Kingdom.
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Georgian Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Georgian Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Georgian Chess Players.
1. Tigran Petrosian (1929 - 1984)
With an HPI of 68.21, Tigran Petrosian is the most famous Georgian Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 64 different languages on wikipedia.
Tigran Vardani Petrosian (Armenian: Տիգրան Վարդանի Պետրոսյան; Russian: Тигран Вартанович Петросян; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, which emphasized safety above all else. Petrosian is often credited with popularizing chess in Armenia. Petrosian was a candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions (1953, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1971, 1974, 1977 and 1980). He won the World Championship in 1963 (against Mikhail Botvinnik), successfully defended it in 1966 (against Boris Spassky), and lost it to Spassky in 1969. Thus he was the defending World Champion or a World Championship Candidate in ten consecutive three-year cycles. He won the Soviet Championship four times (1959, 1961, 1969, and 1975).
2. Nona Gaprindashvili (b. 1941)
With an HPI of 64.95, Nona Gaprindashvili is the 2nd most famous Georgian Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 52 different languages.
Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgian: ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი; born 3 May 1941) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive style of play, she was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 was the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster. She was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Presidential Order of Excellence in 2015. Gaprindashvili began playing chess when she was five years old; in 1954, she moved to Tbilisi to train under Grandmasters. In 1962, she became women's world chess champion by a sweeping victory in a match against the incumbent, Elisaveta Bykova. This won her widespread acclaim throughout Georgia. She successfully defended her title on four occasions: three times against Alla Kushnir and once against Nana Alexandria. She narrowly lost her title to Maia Chiburdanidze in 1978. Gaprindashvili participated in men's tournaments during her career, including a performance at Lone Pine International which earned her the title of Grandmaster. She later competed regularly in the Women's World Senior Championship. Besides her chess career, Gaprindashvili maintained an active presence in Georgian politics: she served as a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, as president of the Georgian National Olympic Committee, and as a member of the People's Assembly group that organized the 2011 Georgian protests. In 2021, Gaprindashvili filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix after it erroneously described her in The Queen's Gambit as never having competed against men; Netflix settled in 2022.
3. Maia Chiburdanidze (b. 1961)
With an HPI of 51.96, Maia Chiburdanidze is the 3rd most famous Georgian Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 43 different languages.
Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgian: მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth 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.
4. Nana Alexandria (b. 1949)
With an HPI of 51.60, Nana Alexandria is the 4th most famous Georgian Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 30 different languages.
Nana Alexandria (Georgian: ნანა გიორგის ასული ალექსანდრია, Nana Giorgis asuli Aleksandria; born 13 October 1949) is a Georgian chess player. A three-time Soviet women's champion, she was the challenger in two matches for the Women's World Chess Championship.
5. Genrikh Kasparyan (1910 - 1995)
With an HPI of 46.39, Genrikh Kasparyan is the 5th most famous Georgian Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Genrikh Kasparyan (Surname also spelled Kasparian) (27 February 1910 – 27 December 1995) was an Armenian chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest composers of chess endgame studies. Kasparyan became a national master in 1936 and an international master in 1950. He was awarded the titles of International Judge of Chess Compositions in 1956 and International Grandmaster of Chess Composition in 1972, the first composer to receive this title from FIDE (Harkola 2007). Kasparyan was also a very strong chess player, winning the Armenian championship ten times (from 1934 to 1956, including two ties with future world champion Tigran Petrosian) and the Tiflis championship three times (1931, 1937, 1945). He reached the USSR Championship finals four times (1931, 1937, 1947, 1952), but never finished higher than tenth place. Kasparyan is best known for his compositions. He started with chess problems, mainly three-movers, but soon discovered that his best field was in endgame studies. He wrote several books and collections and composed about 600 studies, many on the theme of domination, winning 57 first prizes. He won the USSR Composing Championship several times (Sunnucks 1970).
6. Nana Ioseliani (b. 1962)
With an HPI of 43.45, Nana Ioseliani is the 6th most famous Georgian Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Nana Ioseliani (Georgian: ნანა იოსელიანი; born 12 February 1962) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded by FIDE the Woman Grandmaster title in 1980 and the International Master title in 1993.
7. Zurab Azmaiparashvili (b. 1960)
With an HPI of 39.67, Zurab Azmaiparashvili is the 7th most famous Georgian Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Georgian: ზურაბ აზმაიფარაშვილი; born 16 March 1960) is a chess grandmaster from Georgia. His peak Elo rating was 2702, achieved in July 2003. He is currently, as of 2024, the president of the European Chess Union.
8. Sergei Movsesian (b. 1978)
With an HPI of 34.40, Sergei Movsesian is the 8th most famous Georgian Chess Player. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Sergei Musheghi Movsesian (Armenian: Սերգեյ Մուշեղի Մովսիսյան; born 3 November 1978) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Armenian team at the 2011 World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo. Movsesian played for the Czech Republic for most of his career. Later he represented Slovakia, which offered him citizenship. On December 30, 2010 Movsesian started to represent his ancestral country of Armenia.
9. Nana Dzagnidze (b. 1987)
With an HPI of 32.19, Nana Dzagnidze is the 9th most famous Georgian Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.
Nana Dzagnidze (Georgian: ნანა ძაგნიძე; born 1 January 1987) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2008. Dzagnidze was a member of the gold medal-winning Georgian team in the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2008 and European women's individual champion in 2017.
10. Bela Khotenashvili (b. 1988)
With an HPI of 30.24, Bela Khotenashvili is the 10th most famous Georgian Chess Player. Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.
Bella Khotenashvili (Georgian: ბელა ხოტენაშვილი; born 1 June 1988), known prior to 2023 as Bela Khotenashvili, is a Georgian chess grandmaster. She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2012, 2015 and 2017.
People
Pantheon has 14 people classified as Georgian chess players born between 1910 and 1991. Of these 14, 12 (85.71%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Georgian chess players include Nona Gaprindashvili, Maia Chiburdanidze, and Nana Alexandria. The most famous deceased Georgian chess players include Tigran Petrosian, and Genrikh Kasparyan. As of April 2024, 2 new Georgian chess players have been added to Pantheon including Ana Matnadze, and Nino Batsiashvili.
Living Georgian Chess Players
Go to all Rankings
Nona Gaprindashvili
1941 - Present
HPI: 64.95
Maia Chiburdanidze
1961 - Present
HPI: 51.96
Nana Alexandria
1949 - Present
HPI: 51.60
Nana Ioseliani
1962 - Present
HPI: 43.45
Zurab Azmaiparashvili
1960 - Present
HPI: 39.67
Sergei Movsesian
1978 - Present
HPI: 34.40
Nana Dzagnidze
1987 - Present
HPI: 32.19
Bela Khotenashvili
1988 - Present
HPI: 30.24
Ana Matnadze
1983 - Present
HPI: 28.68
Salome Melia
1987 - Present
HPI: 28.43
Nino Batsiashvili
1987 - Present
HPI: 21.08
Sopiko Guramishvili
1991 - Present
HPI: 20.35
