Antoaneta Stefanova
Antoaneta Stefanova (b. April 19, 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster, and the reigning Women's World Champion. She won the women's title in 2004 in a 64-player knockout tournament held in Elista, Kalmykia under the auspices of FIDE. Stefanova's FIDE rating of 2527 as of September 2004 placed her 3rd in the world among active female players.
Stefanova's chess-bound passion was enflamed when she was just 4 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 tender age of 7, Eti (as Stefanova is called by her closest friends and relatives) became a Sofia champion.
- In 1989, Eti 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, Eti 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 eight 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.
