Nazi Paikidze

Paikidze was born in Irkutsk, Russia and has been playing chess since she was four years old. Raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, Paikidze quickly collected prolific wins at the highest levels of international youth chess play. By the time she was 16, Paikidze had won four European Youth Chess Championships and medaled in the World Youth Chess Championship an astounding six times, including two gold-medal finishes. In 2006, Paikidze moved with her family to Moscow, Russia. While she continued to represent Georgia in international events, she seized the initiative to combat some of Russia’s best, winning both the Moscow Women’s Championship and the Moscow’s Open Women Tournament, and finishing fourth in the Russian Women’s Chess Championship. With continuous strong play, Nazi achieved her Woman Grandmaster title in 2010 and her International Master in 2012. In 2016, she started teaching lessons on ChessUniversity.com's Prodigy Program chess course. Paikidze won the title of U.S. Women’s Champion in 2016, and recently participated in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in Saint Louis, Missouri where she placed second with a score of 7/11.