Chess in the city of Shumen

Chess in the city of Shumen has long traditions as a mass sport and as an organized chess movement. Over the years, Shumen chess players have won a number of prestigious awards at the national and international level, and our city has hosted numerous tournaments of all ranks - state individual and state team championships, regional championships, international and open tournaments.

Chess as a sport began to develop in Shumen from the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, and this period is associated with names such as MS Ivan Angelov - Barona, MS in chess composition Dimitar Manev, MS Yuri Savov, MS Emil Todorov. The undisputed leader of this generation is MS Dr. Lyudmil Tsonov, with whose arrival in the city in the late 1960s, a competitive men's team was created, which participated under the name "Panayot Volov" in the State Men's Team Championships.

The year 1977 can be considered the beginning of the organized chess movement in the city of Shumen, when the first full-time chess coach MS Stoyan Ivanov was appointed to the then "Panayot Volov" SFS (in 1989 he was approved by FIDE as an international master). A little later, Ms. Vassilis Bunis (FIDE master since 1995) became his colleague in the sports association. The two started the children's and youth sports school. The work of the two coaches bore fruit with the winning of prize places in state team and individual championships for children and juniors. In those years the most prominent graduates of the school are: Ivelin Ivanov MS in Correspondence Chess, Anton Avramov MS, Angel Yanachkov MS, Nikolay Todorov MS, Krasimir Vasilev MS, Plamen Petrov MS, Petya Yordanova MS, Margarita Miteva MS - students of Stoyan Ivanov ; GM Deyan Bozhkov, MS Atanas Dimitrov, MS Levent Huseinov, MS Velislav Stanchev, MS Krasimir Bozhkov, MS Marian Velikov - students of Vasilis Bunis.

Shumen hosted several state junior championships, stages of the men's team championship in "A" group. The club organized international tournaments - "Georgi Gerchev" Memorial with standards for international masters, numerous master tournaments, state and city championships for men, juniors and girls. Major events were the guest sessions with former world champions Mikhail Tal and Nona Gaprindashvili, GM Lev Polugaevski, GM Oleg Romanishin, GM Nikola Padevski.

After political changes in 1989, state sports associations ceased to exist and sports clubs appeared in their place. The "Gambit" chess club in Shumen was established soon with Vasilis Bunis and Stoyan Ivanov. The cooperation between the two contributed to the organization of numerous chess events in Shumen - international open tournaments, many championships from the State Sports Calendar, as well as club and city championships in the various age groups.

In the children's and youth division, Deyan Bozhkov, Nikolay Marchev, Nikolay Anchev for the boys and Zehra Topel for the girls achieved championship titles and medals. Great success was also achieved in the men's team championships, in which the Gambit FC team was a regular participant in the "A" group and reached the medals. Individual successes in men's Shumen chess are also associated with the name of GM Vasil Spasov, who as a member of Gambit FC became a multiple state champion in classical chess, and in 1993 was a participant in the Interzonal Tournament in Bill, Switzerland.

During these years, Ivan Angelov and Dimitar Manev, who had groups at the Shumen youth center, worked with the beginners. With the premature death of Stoyan Ivanov in 2003 and the withdrawal of V. Bunis from active chess activities, SC "Gambit" practically ceased to function.

In 2005, the students of St. Ivanov and V. Bunis - A. Dimitrov, I. Ivanov, A. Avramov, A. Yanachkov, with the assistance of Dr. L. Tsonov created a new chess club - SHK "Shumen 2005". They restarted the training activities.

In the period between 2006 and 2019, under the leadership of coaches A. Yanachkov and Deyan Dimitrov (until 2012) and V. Bunis (who returned as a senior coach to the club in 2012) and A. Avramov, until 2019, many titles and medals came from state championships for boys and girls brought by club players - Maria Milanova, Juliana Koleva, Boryana Petrova, Boyan Angelov, Nona Mircheva, Boris Ivanov, Boryana Dimitrova.

Tournaments of various ranks resumed in the city, mainly hosted by the club in the Town Youth House. In 2006, "Stoyan Ivanov" Memorial tournament in honor of the distinguished chess figure was established.

Emblematic of the organizational activity of SC "Shumen 2005" are the chain of open two-day classical chess tournaments "Citadel" starting in 2007, visited over the years by a wide range of chess players from the region and the whole country.

Sports Chess Club "Shumen"

continues this tradition. Many young chess players are trained at the club, hundreds of children also regularly attend classes led by our coaches in most of Shumen schools. They all experience what they have learned there in two chains of children's tournaments - the open "Chess Seasons", which is at national level, and the internal "Club League" at local level.

SCC "Shumen" is official successor of CC "Shumen 2005" which developed its activities in the Youth Center - town of Shumen from 2005 to 2019. After 2019, the club with its current name and a new management board resides at the new renovated club buildings in the town center.

Champions and prizewinners

Over the years, we have repeatedly had champions and prizewinners of State Championships and State Chess Cups. We also have the participation of our outstanding players in World and European championships for men, juniors and girls.

Board of Directors