Antoaneta Stefanova

A Bulgarian chess player who was the women’s world champion (2004–2006).

Antoaneta started playing chess at the age of 4 from her father's mother Andon. At the age of 7 she was already a chess champion from her hometown, Sofia, and later, in 1989, she won the U-14 European Youth Championship and the U-10 Women's Youth World Championship. In 1992, at just 13 years old, she made her debut in adult chess, participating in the women's section of the Manila Olympiad. In 1995 she won the Bulgarian Women's Championship, in what is her only national title, since she later ruled out playing the tournament. In 2000 she made her debut in the open tournament of the Istanbul Chess Olympiad as part of the Bulgarian national team.

In 2002 she became European champion (she would later be runner-up in 2007 and 2011), and runner-up in the World Cup. That same year she obtained the title of Grand Master, a title that only 10 other women had at the time. But her most special moment came in 2004 when she became the tenth Women's World Champion, defeating the final 4 in a tournament that was played in knockout format and in which 64 players competed. In 2012 she was about to reissue the world champion title, but lost the final in the tie-break against Anna Ushenina, becoming runner-up. That same year, however, she would become the first Rapid Chess World Champion.

Antoaneta Stefanova, in addition to Europeans and World Cups, has participated in 10 Chess Olympiads and has won multiple tournaments in her sports career. Among them are the Wismilak International Chess Tournament (Indonesia, 2002), the rapid tournament of the World Mind Sports Games (China, 2008), the North Urals Cup (Russia, 2008) - considered the most important women's tournament strong of those that had been disputed to date -, two gold medals - fast and blitz - at the IMSA Elite Mind Games (China, 2017), the Shaoxing Open (China, 2019). She will play our tournament for the first time, where she will also give a simultaneous exclusively.