David Gurgenidze

David Gurgenidze is a Georgian chess composer and endgame study theorist, born on 26 September 1953 in the village of Chailuri in what is now the Sagarejo Municipality. His interest in composition began in childhood, helped by a book of chess studies his mother bought him in 1964, and he trained at the chess circle of the Tbilisi Pioneers Palace; his first endgame study was published in 1968. He earned the title of International Master for Chess Composition in 1980 and Grandmaster for Chess Composition in 1989, won over one hundred first prizes in international endgame study contests, and took the USSR championship in endgame study composition in 1981 and 1985. He was twice world champion in endgame study composition, for the periods 1997 to 2000 and 2001 to 2003, and later won bronze medals in 2005 and 2007. Outside composition he served as vice-president of the Georgian Chess Federation from 1994 to 2004, chaired the Georgian Chess Composition Commission from 1991, captained the Georgian women's team that won silver at the 2000 Chess Olympiad, and has written many books on composition, endgame theory and chess history.