Glory to the Queen

"The Encounter explores an extraordinary biographical web between four women, who became icons of women's emancipation during the Soviet era. The focus is on the legendary Soviet-Georgian chess players Maia Chiburdanidze, Nana Alexandria, Nona Gaprindashvili and Nana Iosseliani. The film leads to Tbilisi in Georgia, where all four women live today. From the beginning of the sixties until the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was these four players who revolutionized ""women's chess"" and raised it for the first time to ""men's level"" in the international context.Today they are chess stars and aging women, ordinary and excessive, pedantic and free, and the city, indeed the whole country, is still in their mark - even if these signs are slowly paler. The four, who have often played together in the Soviet Union's Olympic team, were also tough opponents throughout their lives."