site.btaAntoaneta Stefanova Shares Second Place After First Ten Rounds at World Blitz Chess Championships

Former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova is sharing the places from second to fourth in the women’s standings after the first tenof 15 rounds at the Women’s World Blitz Chess Championship in Doha, Qatar.

She has a total of 8 points, the same as the Rapid World Champion Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia) and Umida Omonova (Uzbekistan). Ahead of them with 8.5 points is Eline Roebers (Netherlands).

If Stefanova maintains a top-four position after the remaining five rounds, she will earn the right to participate in the semifinals and the final, which on Tuesday will determine the new world champion. On Monday, the most experienced Bulgarian player in the tournament recorded seven victories, including wins over the reigning World Blitz Champion and five-time Classical World Champion Wenjun Ju of China, as well as over Omonova. She also drew two games, against Goryachkina and China’s Zhu Jiner, and recorded just one loss, to Zarina Nurgaliyeva of Kazakhstan.

Nurgyul Salimova is also delivering a very strong performance so far, currently in 23rd place with 6.5 points. The Bulgarian could have been ranked even higher, but in the tenth round she suffered a loss to two-time Blitz Champion Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan. In the previous two rounds, Salimova defeated the No. 9 seed Zhu Jiner and drew with former World Champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine.

In 38th place in the provisional standings with 6 points is Nadya Toncheva, who started the tournament inconsistently but then recorded impressive victories over the No. 6 seed Humpy Koneru (India) and the No. 12 seed Polina Shuvalova (Russia), as well as draws against the No. 2 seed Tingjie Lei (China) and the No. 4 seed Kateryna Lagno (Russia).

 Among the Bulgarian players, the only one currently in the lower half of the standings is Beloslava Krasteva, who so far has 4 points.

The men’s competition will conclude later on Monday.