Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgarian: Антоанета Стефанова) (born April 19, 1979) is a
Bulgarian chess grandmaster, and a former Women's World Chess Champion. She became the twelfth titleholder in 2004 in a 64-player knockout tournament held in Elista, Kalmykia under the auspices of FIDE. Stefanova's FIDE rating of 2538 on the April 2008 list placed 6th in the world among active female players.
Stefanova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her chess-bound passion was inflamed when she was just four years old and she received first classes on the black-and-white chessboard by her own father, Andon Stefanov, himself a designing artist. With her elder sister, Liana, Antoaneta had made her best mating tandem.
* At the age of seven, Stefanova became a Sofia champion.
* In 1989, Stefanova swept the world chess crown for kids in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and later the same year triumphed in the under-14 Czech championship.
* Since 1994, Stefanova has successively competed in grandmaster championships, taking even seventh among male nationals in 1993.
* In 1997 Stefanova's FIDE rating broke into the top ten of women worldwide. Also she earned the title of Grandmaster in June 2003, a title held by only ten other women.
* She has played for Bulgaria in five Chess Olympiads so far, starting in Manila, the Philippines, when just 13.
* In 2000, her coach promoted her in the Bulgarian men's team for the Istanbul Olympiad.
"Sexy, self-confident, sociable ... can we be talking about a professional chess player? Yes, we can," says Pergammon Chess where her photo was on the cover.
Photo Album:
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Chess Beautiful Ladies : Antoaneta Stefanova
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Chess Jokes:Chess Nuts funny
During the recent Karpov-Kasparov world chess championships they came to an adjournment and left for their hotel.
In the lobby of the hotel several chess enthusiasts could be heard bragging, "I could beat Karpov with no problem".
"Oh yeah, I could beat both of them at the same time."
"That's nothing, I could beat both of them blindfolded!"
Finally, the hotel manager had had enough and threw them all out of the hotel.
But why?" a bystander asked.
"Because," the manager replied "I hate ..."chess nuts boasting by an open foyer!
Why Michiel Jackson hates to play chess
Why doesn't Michiel Jackson like to play Chess???
FIDE is going to open a chess centre with academy and museum in Baku
Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Ceremony of official opening of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Grand Prix first tournament took place in Baku yesterday. The ceremony that was attended by the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birthday of the national leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, and led off a range of the Grand Prix tournaments. Within the strategy of opening of chess palaces and centres in capitals of the world FIDE made a proposal to the Azerbaijan Chess Federation for construction of an international chess centre in Baku.
“In case the proposal is received a complex to compose International Chess Academy and Chess Museum can be built in the centre of Baku. This is an investment and commercial project. Investments in the project will be made by both FIDE and organizations co-operating with it (Global Chess, Chess Line, etc). Terms and cost of the construction depend on the proposal and the project that is estimated differently in various countries,” Ilyumjinov said.
In 2009 FIDE is to open such a centre in Yekaterinburg (Russia), Seoul (Republic of Korea) and Kishinev (Moldova).
“We mark high chess potential of Azerbaijan. The country is one of the few ones that is ready to adopt State Chess Development Programme for period until 2013,” Ilyumzhinov said.
The tournament that opened yesterday is due to last until May 6. It gathered 14 Grand Masters from 10 countries and has XIXth (the highest) category of FIDE.
Source : http://abc.az/cgi-bin/wnews_one.cgi?nid=23325&lang=eng