FIDE has announced the official shortlists for the inaugural FIDE Excellence Awards, recognising outstanding achievements, individuals, events, teams, federations and initiatives from across the global chess community.
Established in 2026, the biennial awards celebrate excellence across a two-year cycle. Following the public nomination period held throughout June, the verification and shortlisting process has now been completed.
Each of the eleven award categories, comprising six regular categories and five discretionary categories, features ten nominees selected by the FIDE Excellence Awards Jury. The Jury was appointed by the FIDE President in consultation with the FIDE Management Board and the FIDE Excellence Awards Working Group.
The inaugural awards cover achievements from September 2024 to August 2026.
The official shortlists are:
Best Chess Player (Male)
Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen, Arjun Erigaisi, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Gukesh Dommaraju, Vincent Keymer, R Praggnanandhaa, Javokhir Sindarov
Best Chess Player (Female)
Bibisara Assaubayeva, Divya Deshmukh, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Koneru Humpy, Lei Tingjie, Anna Muzychuk, Tan Zhongyi, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Ju Wenjun, Zhu Jiner
Best Tournament (Open)
Abu Dhabi Chess Festival, Aeroflot Open, Dubai Open, Grenke Freestyle Chess Open, Open Chess Menorca, Prague International Chess Festival Open, Qatar Masters Open, Reykjavik Open, Sharjah Masters, U.S. Open Chess Championship
Best Tournament (Round-robin)
Biel Chess Festival, Cairns Cup, Grand Chess Tour, London Chess Classic, Norway Chess, Prague International Chess Festival, Sinquefield Cup, Tata Steel Chess Tournament, TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament, UzChess Cup
Best Federation
Chinese Chess Association, Colombian Chess Federation, Georgian Chess Federation, All India Chess Federation, Italian Chess Federation, Kazakhstan Chess Federation, Chess Kenya, Chess Federation of Serbia, Turkish Chess Federation, Uzbekistan Chess Federation
Best Chess Initiative
Armenian School Chess Programme, Chess for Freedom, Chess for Protection, Chess in Schools and Communities, ChessBase India Foundation, Freedom Asian Chess Initiatives (FACI), FIDE Infinite Chess Project, Kasparov Chess Foundation Africa, Queens’ Online Chess Festival, The Gift of Chess
Best Team
Ashdod Elit Chess Club, China (Open and Women’s National Teams), Dragon Chilling, Hexamind Chess Team, India (Open and Women’s National Teams), Kazakhstan (Open and Women’s National Teams), Team MGD1, United States (Open National Team), Uzbekistan (Open National Team), WR Chess Team
Best Breakthrough (Rookie of the Year)
Divya Deshmukh, Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş, Faustino Oro, Gukesh Dommaraju, Anastasiia Hnatyshyn, Vincent Keymer, Volodar Murzin, Javokhir Sindarov, Andy Woodward, Zhu Jiner
Best Comeback
Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Vladimir Fedoseev, Pentala Harikrishna, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Parham Maghsoodloo, Anna Muzychuk, Tan Zhongyi, Wei Yi
Best Chess Player with a Disability
Jennitha Anto, Artom Andriienko, Griffin McConnell, Jamal Messala, Natasha Morales Santos, Łukasz Nowak, Jesus Osorio, Handenur Şahin, Marcin Tazbir, Jessica Lauser
Best Creator
Alexandra Botez and Andrea Botez, Anna Cramling, ChessBase India, ChessBrah, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Leontxo García, Hikaru Nakamura, Levy Rozman, Sagar Shah, Simon Williams
With the shortlists confirmed, the selection process now moves to the FIDE Excellence Awards Panel. Bringing together expertise from across the chess world, the Panel will review the nominees and vote to determine the winner in each category.
The winners will be revealed and honoured during the official FIDE Excellence Awards ceremony in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September 2026. The ceremony will take place alongside the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad.
The complete shortlists, together with further information about the awards, selection process and ceremony, are available at https://excellence.fide.com/.
For inquiries, please contact awards@fide.com.