Historically observed, chess is a very popular and extremely significant sport in Georgia. Therefore, every year there is more tournaments and championships available to incredible Georgian players who show strong emotions and passion towards this type of game. Because of this, Georgia has a large number of Grandmasters (GM), International Masters (IM), Candidate Masters (CM), as well as FIDE Masters (FM). Georgia also has a significant number of Women Grandmasters (WGM) Women International Masters (WIM), Women Candidate Masters (WCM) and also Women FIDE Masters (WFM).

Nona Gaprindashvili Cup Open-A

This is a competition held in honor of the Georgian best female chess player and first female Grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili. It was held in September 2015 with 60 participants from the countries of the ex-Soviet Union. Among them 6 Grandmasters such as Levan Pantsulaia, Luka Paichadze, Tornike Sanikidze, Davit Maghalashvili and Davit Lomsadze from Georgia, and Hovik Hayrapetyan from Armenia. There were also 14 International Masters, four Women Grandmasters, 5 Women International Masters, 8 FIDE Masters, and 6 Women FIDE Masters.

Nona Gaprindashvili Cup Open-B

It was also held in September 2015, with 109 participants from Georgia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, and Iran. Unlike Nona Gaprindashvili Cup Open-A, this tournament only featured only three Women FIDE Masters - Jemal Ovezdurdiyeva, Ogulgerek Atabayeva from Turkmenistan and Nino Jalaghonia from Georgia. There was also one Woman Candidate Master - Lali Bibilashvili.

To a great extent, Georgia was always involved in the world of chess. Under the flag of the Soviet Union, women of Georgia have been extraordinarily successful. The best proof for this is the Women’s World Chess Champion title which was in the hands of Georgian chess players for almost 30 consecutive years. There is certainly something special about the relationship of Georgian women with chess according to these results.

Her success was an inspiration for many generations of Georgians as well as thousands of chess players around the world. Because of her, parents named their daughters Nona or sent them to the chess lessons. For Georgians, she is simply a celebrity, a national hero, an idol who was a great influence for other chess players that came after her such as Maia Chiburdanidze, Nana Aleksandria, Nana Ioseliani, Nino Gurieli, Ketevan Arakhamia and Ketevan Kakhiani.

Before you think that we are talking about Gerogia in the USA, we have to let you know that there is another Georgia, located in Europe; a small and beautiful country which seems to gain some popularity due to its skilled chess players. The country in the Caucasus is very well known for having a long chess tradition. Usually the eastern European countries have been more engaged in chess tournaments than western socieitis. Georgia, used to be a part of the Soviet Union, and perhaps its chess tradition comes from the strong links with the former Soviet Union which survived until today. The Soviets were well-known for producing some of the biggest chess players in the world.

Georgia, nowadays, has many chess clubs with very strong and advanced members who take part in tournaments. The chess clubs are also available online with usually neat and very well-organized websites to the delight of many Georgian chess players.