The 1972

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship is a chess match played to determine the Women's World Chess Champion. It has been administered by FIDE since its inception in 1927, unlike the absolute World Chess Championship, which only came under FIDE's ...

was won by

Nona Gaprindashvili Nona Gaprindashvili ( ka, 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 ...

, who successfully defended her title against challenger

Alla Kushnir Alla Shulimovna Kushnir (; ; 11 August 1941 – 2 August 2013) was a Soviet-born Israeli chess player. She was awarded the FIDE titles of Woman International Master (WIM) in 1962 and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1976. In 2017, she was inducted ...

. This was the third (and last) consecutive title match between the two strongest female players of their time.

1971 Interzonal Tournament

For the first time, the women's championship cycle consisted of all the same stages as the open cycle. An

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Ca ...

tournament was held in

Ohrid Ohrid ( ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording a population of over 42,000 inhabitants as of ...

in May 1971, featuring the best players from each FIDE zone, for a total of 18 participants. The top three would qualify for the Candidates Tournament. :

1971 Candidates matches

The top three from the Interzonal were joined by Kushnir, the loser of the last championship match. These four players contested a knock-out series of matches to determine the challenger. Kushnir again prevailed, earning the right to another shot at Gaprindashvili's title.

1972 Championship Match

The championship match was played in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

in 1972. This time, Kushnir came closer than ever to beating Gaprindashvili, but with draws in the last two games the defending champion managed to hang onto her title by one point. :

References

{{Women's World Chess Championships Women's World Chess Championships 1972 in chess 1972 in women's sport