Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgian: მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess grandmaster, and the seventh Women's World Chess Champion. She is the only chess player in history who has won nine Chess Olympiads. Maia is one of the very few women who has won a top-class grandmaster tournament. 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.
Maia Chiburdanidze was born in Kutaisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, 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 Woman Grandmaster.