Maya Peycheva Aleksieva

Full Name: Maya Peycheva Aleksieva

Date of birth: April 1, 1973

Birth Place: Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Current City of Residence: Sofia, Bulgaria

Marital Status: Married

Children: Two

Occupation: The President of Bulgarian Backgammon Federation, Professional Backgammon Player, Backgammon Teacher

How I Started in Backgammon: During one holiday I had nothing to do, so two of my friends started teaching me

Book I have written: For the game Backgammon and secrets of winning (it is only in Bulgarian)

Backgammon Nickname: Peycheva, Maia Peicheva, The_Gambler_Queen, The_BG_Queen

Current skill level: World Class, but not every time

Number of years playing Backgammon live: Since 2001

Favorite Tournament Venue: World Championship in Monaco

Titles won:

– 2002- Champion of Bulgaria

– 2003- Champion of Bulgaria

Till now I played in 9 live tournaments abroad and still I haven’t won a cup for 1st place

Other important finishes:

– 2003 – Runner-up in Last Chance, European Championship in Nova Goritsa, Slovenia

– 2006 – Runner-up in Main Tournament, Venice, Italy

– 2006 – Semifinalist in Davis Cup (doubles), Venice, Italy

– 2007 – February – Semifinalist in Consolation, Cannes, France

– 2007 – Ladies Prize in Monaco

Favorite Backgammon book(s): All of Danny Kleinman’s books and Backgammon by Paul Magriel

Favorite Music: R&B, Abba

Favorite film: The Secret, 2006

Favorite Food: Bulgarian: Tarator (it is a cold soup made of yogurt, cucumbers and garlic), Mish-mash (made of fried tomatoes, peppers, cheese, garlic and eggs) and Yogurt fried in eggs

Other Interests & Hobbies: Psychology, Psychotherapy, Numerology, Astronomy, making bets on soccer matches, Volleyball- playing and watching

Person I’d like most to meet: Danny Kleinman, Hristo Stoichkov, Roger Federer and everybody who is a born winner

Favorite Celebrity: Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein

If I could change anything in the world, I would… make all the planes take off and land on time

If I could change anything in Backgammon world, I would… introduce backgammon in Bulgarian schools like chess

– I am a Volleyball Champion of Bulgaria for 1994

– I won Cooking Competition in 2003

– I won Dance Competition in 2003

– I want to win against myself, because if I do it I would have conquered the whole world, so I work for it.

– I think that Backgammon is more psychology and less playing, because if it were different the World Champion would have been the best player in the world at any given time. Dice are function of the brain