Antoaneta Stefanova ( bg, Антоанета Стефанова; born 19 April 1979) is a
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
n
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
grandmaster and
Women's World Champion from 2004 to 2006. She has represented Bulgaria in the
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...
in 2000 and the
Women's Chess Olympiad
The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...
since 1992.
Early life and career
Stefanova was born in
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
, the capital of Bulgaria. When she was four years old, she received chess lessons from her father, Andon Stefanov, a designing artist.
In 1989, Stefanova won the Girls U10 section at the
World Youth Chess Festival in
Aguadilla
Aguadilla (, ), founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city and municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla i ...
,
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
. In 1992, she played, at the age of 13, in her first Chess Olympiad in
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. In the same year she became European under-14 girls' champion at the
European Youth Chess Championship The European Youth Chess Championship is organized by the European Chess Union (ECU) in groups under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old. The first tournament was held in 1991, and the under 8 category was introduced in 2007. Until 2002 there was als ...
in
Rimavská Sobota
Rimavská Sobota (; hu, Rimaszombat, german: Großsteffelsdorf) is a town in southern Slovakia, in the Banská Bystrica Region, on the Rimava river. It has approximately 24,000 inhabitants. The town is a historical capital of Gömör és Kishon ...
. Stefanova won the
Bulgarian women's championship in 1995.
She tied for fourth place in the 4th
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
International Chess Tournament in 1997 scoring 7 points out of 10 games. Thanks to this result Stefanova achieved her first
norm
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envi ...
for the title Grandmaster.
In January 1998, her
FIDE rating
A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both.
Rating or ratings may also refer to:
Business and economics
* Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...
broke into the top ten of women worldwide.
She played in the open section at the
2000 Chess Olympiad
The 34th Chess Olympiad ( tr, 34. Satranç Olimpiyatı), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to all players. and women's tourn ...
.
In 2001, Stefanova tied for first place (finishing second on countback) in the 19th
Andorra
, image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg
, symbol_type = Coat of arms
, national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...
Open.
In June 2002, she won the 3rd
European Individual Women's Championship in
Varna
Varna may refer to:
Places Europe
*Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria
**Varna Province
**Varna Municipality
** Gulf of Varna
**Lake Varna
**Varna Necropolis
*Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy
*Varniai, a city in Lithuania
* Varna (Šaba ...
.
Stefanova was awarded the title of Grandmaster at the
FIDE Presidential Board meeting in
Doha
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...
in July 2002 as the ninth woman to ever have reached that rank.
At the end of July 2002, she won the Wismilak International Chess Tournament, a
category 8 (average rating 2446)
round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...
in
Surabaya, Indonesia, scoring 9½/11 points with a
performance rating
The PR (Performance Rating, P-rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s (Cyrix announced it in February 1996) as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of r ...
of 2750.
She participated in the 2004
Corus B tournament in
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee ( literally ''Neighborhood at Sea'') is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus ...
, the Netherlands: she scored 6/13 points with a rating performance of 2537, placing ninth out of fourteen participants. Stefanova became the tenth Women's World Chess Champion in June 2004 by winning a
64-player knockout tournament held in
Elista
Elista (russian: Элиста́, (common during the Soviet era) or (most common pronunciation used after 1992 and in Kalmykia itself);"Большой энциклопедический словарь", под ред. А. М. Прохорова. ...
,
Kalmykia, under the auspices of
FIDE.
In 2008, she won the North Urals Cup in
Krasnoturinsk
Krasnoturyinsk (russian: Краснотурьи́нск) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Turya River ( Ob's basin), north of Yekaterinburg. Population:
History
It was one of the copper mining settlements established i ...
, Russia, and the women's individual
rapid tournament of the
2008 World Mind Sports Games
The first World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) were held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008, about two months after the Olympic Games. in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. In 2012, Stefanova won the
Women's World Rapid Chess Championship.
She was the runner-up in the
Women's World Chess Championship 2012
The Women's World Chess Championship 2012 was a knockout tournament, to decide the women's world champion. The title was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine for the first time. Defending champion Hou Yifan went out in the second round.
The tournament ...
, losing to
Anna Ushenina
Anna Yuriyivna Ushenina (; born 30 August 1985) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster who was Women's World Chess Champion from November 2012 to September 2013.
Personal life
Ushenina lives in Kharkiv, where she was born. She is of Jewish ethnici ...
in the final on the tie-break. In 2017, Stefanova won two gold medals at the
IMSA Elite Mind Games in
Huai'an
Huai'an (), formerly called Huaiyin () until 2001, is a prefecture-level city in the central part of Jiangsu province in East China, Eastern China. Huai'an is situated almost directly south of Lianyungang, southeast of Suqian, northwest of Yan ...
, China, in the women's rapid chess event and the women's
blitz chess
Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...
event.
Political career
In 2021 she became a Member of Parliament for
There Is Such A People and was nominated as the party's candidate for the prime minister position.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
Antoaneta Stefanovachess games and profile at Chess-DB.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stefanova, Antoaneta
1979 births
Living people
Chess grandmasters
Female chess grandmasters
Chess woman grandmasters
Women's world chess champions
European Chess Champions
World Youth Chess Champions
Bulgarian female chess players
Chess players from Sofia