I cover the banking and non-banking financial sector in Bulgaria
With a victory of 2.5-1.5 points in the last, ninth round against Georgia, the Bulgarian women’s national chess team became the European champion of the championship, which was held in Budva, Montenegro. After our team, Azerbaijan remained in the standings, and the French team was third.
KEY FACTS
- At the Old Continent Championships in Budva, Antoineta Stefanova, Nurgyul Salimova, Victoria Radeva, Gergana Peycheva and Beloslava Krasteva achieved the greatest success in the history of the women’s national team, finishing with 16 match points after seven wins, two draws and no one loss and they were one point ahead of second place Azerbaijan.
- Former world champion Antoineta Stefanova defeated Bella Hotenashvili, a Nurgyul Salimova ended in a draw with Nino Batsiashvili.
- Beloslava Krasteva lost her match with Salome Melia, but in the last and longest match, Gergana Peycheva defeated Lela Javakhishvili.
- The Bulgarian team won the title after 7 wins and two draws.
- The Georgian women are current world champions, and in all four matches, the players from this country had a higher coefficient than the Bulgarian women.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Before winning today’s title, which comes on Bulgaria’s return to the European Championship after a 10-year hiatus, the biggest team successes in women’s chess came from the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984, at the Chess Olympiad – the most important forum in this sport, Bulgaria, composed of Margarita Voiska, Rumyana Gocheva, Pavlina Chilingirova and Stefka Savova, won the silver medals. Ten years earlier, at the Olympics in Medellin, Colombia, the Bulgarian team – Tatyana Lemachko, Antonina Georgieva and Venka Asenova, won bronze medals.
In August of this year, Nurgyul Salimova took second place at the World Chess Cup, and later in the year, Beloslava Krasteva came third at the Under-20 World Championship. This shows that Bulgarian women’s chess is not standing on its old laurels from Antoineta Stefanova’s world title years ago, and continues to develop, with many young and talented competitors.
Viktoria Radeva is also in the squad for the European Team Championship, who could not participate in the last rounds due to illness.
