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Antoaneta Stefanova

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Antoaneta Stefanova
(2022)
CountryBulgaria
Born (1979-04-19) 19 April 1979 (age 45)
Sofia, Bulgaria
TitleGrandmaster (2002)
Women's World Champion2004–2006
FIDE rating2418 (November 2024)
Peak rating2560 (January 2003)
Peak rankingNo. 2 woman (January 2003)

Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgarian: Антоанета Стефанова; born 19 April 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and Women's World Champion from 2004 to 2006. She has represented Bulgaria in the Chess Olympiad in 2000 and the Women's Chess Olympiad since 1992.

Early life and career

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Stefanova was born in Sofia, 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, Puerto Rico. In 1992, she played, at the age of 13, in her first Chess Olympiad in Manila, Philippines.[1] In the same year she became European under-14 girls' champion at the European Youth Chess Championship in Rimavská Sobota. Stefanova won the Bulgarian women's championship in 1995.

She tied for fourth place in the 4th Hawaii International Chess Tournament in 1997 scoring 7 points out of 10 games. Thanks to this result Stefanova achieved her first norm for the title Grandmaster.[2] In January 1998, her FIDE rating broke into the top ten of women worldwide.[3] She played in the open section at the 2000 Chess Olympiad.[4] In 2001, Stefanova tied for first place (finishing second on countback) in the 19th Andorra Open.[5]

In June 2002, she won the 3rd European Individual Women's Championship in Varna.[6] Stefanova was awarded the title of Grandmaster at the FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Doha in July 2002 as the ninth woman to ever have reached that rank.[7] At the end of July 2002, she won the Wismilak International Chess Tournament, a category 8 (average rating 2446) round-robin tournament in Surabaya, Indonesia, scoring 9½/11 points with a performance rating of 2750.[8][9]

She participated in the 2004 Corus B tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands: she scored 6/13 points with a rating performance of 2537, placing ninth out of fourteen participants.[10] Stefanova became the tenth Women's World Chess Champion in June 2004 by winning a 64-player knockout tournament held in Elista, Kalmykia, under the auspices of FIDE.[11]

In 2008, she won the North Urals Cup in Krasnoturinsk, Russia,[12] and the women's individual rapid tournament of the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing. In 2012, Stefanova won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship.[13] She was the runner-up in the Women's World Chess Championship 2012, losing to Anna Ushenina in the final on the tie-break. In 2017, Stefanova won two gold medals at the IMSA Elite Mind Games in Huai'an, China, in the women's rapid chess event and the women's blitz chess event.[14]

In November 2023 the Bulgarian Women's chess team with Stefanova as captain won the European championship.[15]

Notable game

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Stefanova vs. Nikolic, 2005
abcdefgh
8
c8 black rook
d8 black rook
g8 black king
a7 black pawn
b7 black pawn
f7 black pawn
h7 black pawn
b6 black queen
f6 black pawn
h6 white queen
d5 white pawn
e5 black pawn
g5 white pawn
h5 white pawn
b3 white pawn
c3 white knight
a2 white pawn
b2 white king
c2 black bishop
e2 white pawn
f2 white pawn
d1 white rook
g1 white rook
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
After White's 24.g5. Facing mate or decisive material loss, Black resigned.

Stefanova vs. GM P. Nikolic, Wijk aan Zee 2005. In a Catalan Opening, Stefanova castles queenside and gets a kingside attack. Nikolic resigns on Move 24.[16]

Political career

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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.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Antoaneta Stefanova - Women's Chess Olympiads OlimpBase
  2. ^ Crowther, Mark (28 April 1997). "TWIC 129: Fourth Hawaii International Chess Tournament 1997". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  3. ^ January 1998 Women's rating list OlimpBase
  4. ^ 34th Chess Olympiad 2000 Open: Bulgaria team composition Chess-Results
  5. ^ Crowther, Mark (9 July 2001). "TWIC 348: Andorra Open". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  6. ^ 3rd European Individual Women's Chess Championship Varna, Bulgaria Chess-Results
  7. ^ Schipkov, Boris. "FIDE News". Chess Siberia. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  8. ^ Crowther, Mark (29 July 2002). "TWIC 403: Wismilak International". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  9. ^ "Wismilak International, Surabaya 2002". IndonesiaBase. 1 October 2009. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  10. ^ "Standings of grandmaster group B". Tata Steel Chess. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  11. ^ "Antoaneta Stefanova new Women's World Champion". chessbase.com. 6 May 2004.
  12. ^ "North Urals R7: Stefanova wins, followed by Ushenina, Sebag". ChessBase. 2008-08-03. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  13. ^ "Antoaneta Stefanova is Women World Rapid Champion". Chessdom. 3 June 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  14. ^ "IMSA Elite Mind Games 2017 | The Week in Chess". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  15. ^ "Bulgaria's Women's chess team wins European title".
  16. ^ "Antoaneta Stefanova vs Predrag Nikolic (2005)".
  17. ^ "There Is Such a People Set to Return Government-Forming Mandate Right away – Slavi Trifonov - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency".
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Preceded by Women's World Chess Champion
2004–2006 		Succeeded by
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