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Maia Chiburdanidze

Athletes · Chess · milestone at age 17 ·T2 Field-leading

Milestone (age 17)

Became the sixth Women's World Chess Champion in 1978 at age 17 by defeating Nona Gaprindashvili, the youngest ever at the time, and held the title until 1991.

Chiburdanidze learned chess from her older brother at age 8 in Kutaisi, Georgian SSR. She won her debut international tournament at Brasov at age 13, became USSR girls' champion at 15, was awarded the Woman Grandmaster title at 16, and won the world championship at 17.

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Starting point

Born in 1961 in Kutaisi, Georgian SSR; chess was popular in her family and her older brother taught her to play at age 8; the family relocated to Tbilisi to support her chess development.

Current position (2025)

Retired from competitive chess; lives alone near Tbilisi, Georgia, tending to her garden.

How this path compounded

01 Starting advantages

14/24 starting-position score

Strongest documented signals: Elite institution pipeline, Frontier geography, Direct domain exposure.

Describes the starting position, not what the person later made of it.

Cohort percentile: 98

02 Built or converted leverage

13/25 multiplying-capacity score

Strongest observed levers:Domain proximity, Started serious reps before 20, Prior reps.

Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.

Cohort percentile: 80

03 Compounding trajectory

7 documented steps

The timeline below shows the sequence of work and transitions around the selected early milestone. It is evidence of a path, not proof that every step was necessary.

Milestone at age 17

04 Observed career standing

T2 · Field-leading

Dominant figure at the top of a field. The tier summarizes documented career recognition through the data cutoff—not Maia Chiburdanidze's worth or future potential.

How tiers work →

Question four · where did the leverage come from?

Maia Chiburdanidze's leverage provenance

Each non-zero lever gets a best-supported origin, evidence signals, and confidence. Unresolved is the honest default when the biography cannot distinguish self-built, advantage-enabled, earned, external, or mixed.

Started serious reps before 201/1

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Parent / family domain (1/2)Rare early tools (1/2)Dedicated mentor / coach (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)

Domain proximity2/2

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Direct domain exposure (2/2)Parent / family domain (1/2)Frontier geography (2/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)

Prior reps2/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Parent / family domain (1/2)Rare early tools (1/2)Dedicated mentor / coach (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)

Scarce skill depth2/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Parent / family domain (1/2)Rare early tools (1/2)Dedicated mentor / coach (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)

Elite ecosystem network2/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Parent / family domain (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)Frontier geography (2/2)Exceptional peer / cofounder (1/2)

Concentration intensity2/3

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Family financial platform (1/2)Dedicated mentor / coach (1/2)Adversity / constraint catalyst (1/2)

Capital safety1/2

Advantage-enabledmedium confidence

One or more documented starting advantages plausibly enabled this lever.

Family financial platform (1/2)Elite institution pipeline (2/2)

Structural wave / timing1/3

Externalmedium confidence

A structural wave is external to the person, even when their position improved access to it.

Frontier geography (2/2)

This is a bounded inference from the current annotations—not a claim about private effort, merit, or the percentage of Maia Chiburdanidze's outcome attributable to any origin.

Luck is not a leftover score.

Structural luck, Encounter luck, Event luck, Outcome variance can change every arrow in the path. This successful-only dataset cannot observe the near-identical paths that did not break through, so luck stays visible and unscored.

Within Athletes, Maia Chiburdanidze's starting-advantage total is at the 98th percentile. Separately, their built or converted leverage total is at the 80th percentile. Other T2 profiles average 7.9 / 24 starting advantage and 12.3 / 25 leverage. Similar scores appear in other tiers, so these figures describe positioning—not a cause.

Trajectory

1974 · age 13
Won her debut international tournament in Brasov
Romania, demonstrating exceptional early talent.
1976 · age 15
Became USSR girls' champion and finished second in the Tbilisi Women's Interzonal
Qualifying for the world championship cycle.
1978 · age 17
Defeated Nona Gaprindashvili to become the sixth Women's World Chess Champion
The youngest in history at that time.
1984 · age 23
Became the second woman in history to
Be awarded the FIDE Grandmaster title.
1988 · age 27
Successfully defended her world championship title
For the fourth time by defeating Nana Ioseliani in Telavi.
1991 · age 30
Lost the world championship title to Xie Jun of China
Ending her 13-year reign.
2008 · age 47
Won her ninth team gold medal at the Women's Chess Olympiad
Her final major international appearance.

Primary leverage engine

Early specialization

Early specialization / prior reps

Secondary engine

Technical depth

Built/converted leverage

13 / 25

evidence: High

Built or converted leverage

Multiplying capacity documented later in the path. Measures what was present, not whether it was inherited, earned, self-built, external, or mixed.

Started serious reps before 20

1/1

Prior reps

2/3

Scarce skill depth

2/3

Native distribution

0/3

Elite ecosystem network

2/3

Complementary team

0/2

Structural wave / timing

1/3

Concentration intensity

2/3

Capital safety

1/2

Domain proximity

2/2

Starting-advantage scores (0–2 each)

Access or conditions documented near the beginning of the path. Zero means "no clear evidence in reviewed sources," not "advantage was absent."

Family financial platform

1/2

Parent / family domain

1/2

Inherited audience / network

0/2

Elite institution pipeline

2/2

Frontier geography

2/2

Rare early tools

1/2

Dedicated mentor / coach

1/2

Exceptional peer / cofounder

1/2

Early online platform

0/2

Direct domain exposure

2/2

Prodigy / innate ability

2/2

Adversity / constraint catalyst

1/2

Family context

Born in Kutaisi, Georgian SSR; chess was very popular in her family. Her older brother Reziko taught her to play at age 8. The family moved to Tbilisi so she could receive better chess training at the chess schools there.

Parent / family domain

Chess was very popular in her family; her older brother taught her to play at age 8. The family relocated to Tbilisi to support her chess development at better chess schools.

Archetype & tags

Elite performance pipelineSoviet chess systemGeorgian chess traditionearly prodigyfamily chess cultureTbilisi chess schools

Evidence summary

Maia Chiburdanidze was a chess prodigy from Kutaisi, Georgian SSR, who learned the game from her brother at age 8. She could read at age 3 and showed exceptional cognitive ability early. Her family moved to Tbilisi to give her access to better chess training. The Soviet chess pipeline and Georgia's strong women's chess tradition (exemplified by her predecessor Gaprindashvili) provided the elite ecosystem. She won the world championship at 17, becoming the youngest Women's World Chess Champion ever at that time.

advantage confidence: High · source count: 5 · audit: not_independently_audited · status: subagent_researched_beta

Sources

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