The greatest Bulgarian champion is Antoaneta Stefanova, the former World Chess Champion of 2005. When Veselin Topalov took the same title in 2005, Bulgaria became the number one chess country in the world, holding both titles, something no other country did after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The chess champion Antoaneta Stefanova was born on 19 April 1979 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She received her first chess lessons from her father when she was only four years old. In 1986, at the age of six, she became Sofia’s champion. In 1989, she won the World Children’s Chess Tournament in Puerto Rico.
Veselin Topalov and Antoaneta Stefanova
Antoaneta is exceptional with uncommon intelligence. Antoaneta Stefanova had participated in 5 chess Olympiads, the first in Manila, Philippines, when she was only 13. In 2000, she was promoted to the Bulgarian national men’s team for the Chess Olympics in Istanbul.
Towards the end of the second millennium, she was awarded the title of Grand master in 1997 after her FIDE rating had risen into the top ten. The Grand master title has been awarded to only eleven women worldwide. As of October 2007, Antoaneta Stefanova’s ELO is 2463, and she can participate in men’s tournaments. In 2004, Antoaneta Stefanova became the youngest person to be declared an honorary citizen of Plovdiv.
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