What is Maia Chiburdanidze?
[[File:Chiburdanidze,Maja 1980 Malta.JPG|thumb|Maia Chiburdanidze, Malta 1980]] '''Maia Chiburdanidze''' ({{lang-ka|მაია ჩიბურდანიძე}}; born 17 January 1961) is a [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] [[chess]] [[Grandmaster (chess)|grandmaster]], and the seventh [[List of World Chess Champions|Women's World Chess Champion]]. She is the only chess player in history who has won nine [[Chess Olympiad]]s. Maia is one of the very few women who has won a top-class grandmaster tournament.<ref>New In Chess 1986, #7, p66–68</ref> Chiburdanidze's [[FIDE]] [[Elo rating]] in the January 2010 list is 2514, and she is still the 11th highest rated female player in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=women |title=FIDE Online. FIDE Top players - Top 100 Women March 2010 |work=ratings.fide.com |access-date=23 April 2010 }}</ref> 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 Soviet women's title. In 1977 she was awarded the title of [[Grandmaster (chess)|Woman Grandmaster]]. == Women's World Champion (1978–91) == Chiburdanidze finished 2nd 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. Then 17, she was and still is the youngest to win the Women's World Chess Championship. She successfully defended her title four times. In 1981 she drew a tough match 8–8 against Nana Alexandria, in [[Tbilisi]], but kept the title as Champion. Three years later she played Irina Levitina in [[Volgograd]], Russia and won convincingly by 8–5. The next defense came against Elena Akhmilovskaya in [[Sofia]] in 1986, and Ch