50th years chess player Maia Tschiburdanidze - 4 stamps mint never hinged, Mozambique

These four mint stamps from Mozambique were issued on the occasion of Maia Tschiburdanidze's 50th birthday. The stamps for two times 16.00 MT, 66.00 MT and 92.00 MT each show a portrait of the Georgian chess grandmaster Maia Tschiburdanidze (January 17, 1961) as well as chess pieces and scenes of the honored at chess games.

Maia Tschiburdanidze (born January 17, 1961 in Kutaisi, Imereti, then Georgian SSR of the Soviet Union) is a Georgian chess player and the sixth world chess champion.

She started for the USSR until the independence of Georgia in 1991. At the age of 17, she won the title fight for the women's world chess championship against Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978 and defended it in 1981 against Nana Alexandria, in 1984 against Irina Levitina, in 1986 against Jelena Achmylowskaja and in 1988 against Nana Iosseliani. In 1991 she finally lost the title against the Chinese Xie Jun.

In 1979 she won the 2nd International German Women's Championship in Bad Kissingen.

In 1984 she became the second woman after Gaprindashvili to achieve the title of Men's Grand Master.

She is the first woman to win an unbeaten category IX grand championship: 1985 in Banja Luka she won in front of 13 men, including 8 grand masters. In addition to her chess career, she completed a medical degree and practices as an ophthalmologist.