The 1978

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

Maia Chiburdanidze Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, 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 ...

, who defeated the incumbent champion

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 ...

At only 17 years of age, Chiburdanidze became the sixth and youngest Women's World Champion (Gaprindashvili had been 20 when she first won the title).

1976 Interzonals

For the first time, the women's cycle contained not one but two

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 ...

tournaments, held in

Roosendaal Roosendaal () is both a city and a municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. Towns/villages of the municipality * Roosendaal (population: 66,760) * Wouw (4,920) * Heerle (1,900) * Nispen (1,440) * Wouwse ...

, Netherlands and

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Georgia, the Georgian SSR, or simply Georgia, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation (by the Red Army) in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Cotermin ...

in November and December 1976, featuring the best players from each FIDE zone. A total of 25 players took part, with the top three from each Interzonal qualifying for the Candidates Tournament. Akhmilovskaya and former three-time challenger Kushnir (now representing Israel) shared first place in Roosendaal, while Lematschko took the third and last spot in the Candidates after a playoff against van der Mije. In Tbilisi, Fatalibekova won, half a point ahead of Kozlovskaya and 15-year-old prodigy Chiburdanidze. : :

1977-78 Candidates matches

The top three from each of the two Interzonals were joined by seeded players Alexandria and Levitina, the finalists from the last Candidates Tournament. These eight players contested a knock-out series of matches. Sixteen-year-old Chiburdanidze beat Kushnir in the final, earning the right to challenge reigning champion Gaprindashvili.

1978 Championship Match

The championship match was played in

from August 19 to October 12, 1978. A close match ended with a victory for 17-year-old Chiburdanidze against her twenty-year older opponent. :

References

{{Women's World Chess Championships Women's World Chess Championships 1978 in chess 1978 in women's sport