Nona was the 6th women world champion. I think this title deserved the WGM title.
In 1978 Gaprindashvili became the first woman to be awarded the Grandmaster title. She was awarded the title as a result of winning Lone Pine 1977 against a field of 45 players, mostly grandmasters. Although she did not meet the technical requirements for the GM Title, this result was so spectacular that FIDE found it sufficient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nona_Gaprindashvili
I just wanted to discuss the fate of the first two female grandmasters, Nona Gaprindashivili and Maia Chiburdanidze.
First of all, for Nona. I understand that FIDE awarded her the title after only one Grandmaster norm, for some kind of special reason. My question is: did she ever eventually achieve more grandmaster norms such that she would have earned the grandmaster title without FIDE intervention?
My question about Maia is, since Susan Polgar is talked about as the first woman to gain the grandmaster title the proper way, how did she get her title? Did she get some similar FIDE intervention? Would she have gained the title without the intervention?
Not much information seems to exist on the internet about this subject.