site.btaBulgarian Women's Chess Team Wins First European Title

Bulgaria’s women’s chess team won their first-ever European title at the European Team Championship in Budva. Antoaneta Stefanova, Nurgyul Salimova, Viktoria Radeva, Gergana Peycheva and Beloslava Krasteva achieved the greatest triumph for Bulgaria’s national women’s chess team, finishing with 16 points after seven wins, two draws and not a single loss, edging out Azerbaijan by a single point.

In the ninth and final round the Bulgarian team took a memorable win by 2.5:1.5 points over the top-ranked Georgian team, who were silver medallists at the last Chess Olympiad.

The title comes after a 10-year hiatus for the Bulgarians from the European championships. Previously, the biggest triumphs for the Bulgarian women’s chess national team date from the 1970s and the 1980s. At the 1984 Chess Olympiad, Margarita Voyska, Rumiana Gocheva, Pavlina Chilingirova and Stefka Savova became silver medallists. Ten years earlier at the Olympiad in Medelin, Columbia, Tatjana Lematschko, Antonina Georgieva and Venka Asenova won the bronze medals.