Quick Facts
Biography
Katrin Aladjova-Kusznirczuk (born Katrin Peneva Aladjova, Bulgarian Катрин Пенева Аладжова, listed with FIDE as Katrin Aladjova, 21 June 1971 in Sofia, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian-Australian chess Woman FIDE Master (WFM).
She was 1986 World Under-16 Girl's Chess Champion and 1989 World Under-18 Girl's Chess Champion.
Chess career
In 1986 she won the Under-16 World Youth Chess Championship (Girls) in Río Gallegos, Argentina and gained the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM). In this event she scored 9.5/11 winning from Ketevan Kakhiani on tiebreak, and finishing half a point ahead of Judit Polgar.
In 1989 she won the Under-18 World Youth Chess Championship (Girls) in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. In the same event, the Bulgarian chess players Veselin Topalov won the Under-14 World Youth Championship and Antoaneta Stefanova won the Under-10 World Youth Championship (Girls), sparking an increased interest in chess in Bulgaria.
Aladjova won the 1992 Australian Women's Chess Championship in Melbourne, Australia. She also won other women's chess events in Australia in 1993 and 1994, before retiring as a professional tournament chess player.
In May 2007, Aladjova was invited as a guest dignitary and commentator for the M-Tel Masters super-GM chess tournament in Sofia, and was interviewed by the French GM Robert Fontaine for Europe Echecs.
She was the President of Chess Victoria from late 2007 to November 2009.
Personal life
Aladjova learnt chess from her father when she was six years old. In 1989, she married and moved to Melbourne Australia, and took the name Katrin Aladjova-Wills. She remarried in 2011 and is now Katrin Aladjova-Kusznirczuk. She has a Bachelor of Business from Victoria University, Australia, and is the co-founder and Director of "All Australia Imports" and "StreetStar Cosmetics". Katrin is also on the Board of Directors of "VITS LanguageLink". and an ambassador for the Victorian Government’s Vision for Language Education – Love of Language program.