Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgarian: Антоанета Стефанова; b. Sofia, April 19, 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster, and the reigning Women's World 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 2495 on the April 2005 list placed her seventh in the world among active female players.

Stefanova's chess-bound passion was enflamed 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.

External links

• FIDE rating card for Antoaneta Stefanova
• Critical Positions from Her Games

Preceded by: Zhu Chen

Women's World Chess Champion 2004–

Succeeded by: current champion