WGMMaria Kouvatsou

Maria Kouvatsou was born in Athens in 1979 and learned chess from her father at five. Her family then moved to Chania, which did not yet have a chess club. She won several Greek girls' championships before becoming world junior girls' champion in 1999. That victory earned her the Woman Grandmaster title. She won the Greek women's championship in 2000 with eight points from nine games. In 2001, she drew a two-game rapid exhibition match against Anatoly Karpov, winning the first game. Kouvatsou represented Greece at three Olympiads and helped AO Kydon Chania win five consecutive national team championships. She studied dentistry in Athens and worked as a dental surgeon. In 2009, she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later worked at the Greek Embassy in Beijing.