IMNazi Paikidze

Nazi Paikidze was born in Irkutsk and grew up in Tbilisi after her family moved there when she was four. Her father taught her chess, and the game was also part of her primary-school curriculum. She began lessons with a professional coach at six. Her first European youth title came in the girls' under-10 section in 2003. She eventually won four European girls' titles and became world champion in the under-14 category in 2007 and under-16 in 2008. After her family moved to Moscow, she trained with grandmaster Vladimir Belov. She became a Woman Grandmaster in 2010 and an International Master in 2012. She joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's chess team in 2012 and began representing the United States the following year. Runner-up on her U.S. Women's Championship debut in 2015, she won the title in 2016. She declined to compete in the 2017 Women's World Championship in Iran in protest at its compulsory hijab rule. She won her second U.S. title in 2018, defeating Annie Wang in a playoff.