WGMAnna-Maja Kazarian

Anna-Maja Kazarian was born in Heerenveen in 2000 and learned chess from her grandfather during a childhood visit to Georgia. Back in the Netherlands, she joined the Sneek chess club and entered her first tournament at seven. She won European girls' under-twelve silver in 2012 and the under-sixteen title in 2015. Her national-team appearances produced an individual bronze at the 2015 European Team Championship and her final Woman International Master norm at the 2016 Olympiad. In 2020, she defeated Machteld van Foreest to win the inaugural Dutch Women's Internet Championship. She also began streaming chess on Twitch that year and later joined the Alliance esports organization. Kazarian studied artificial intelligence at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her first International Master norm came at the 2025 London Chess Classic Open. She became a Woman Grandmaster in 2026.