Chess.com Awards: Everything You Need To Know

The Chess.com Awards is our yearly celebration of the best of the chess world. At the end of every year, we invite the chess community to vote on the best games, moves, creators, and everything else involving the game we love. The awards are a perfect opportunity for the community to remember, discuss, and commemorate the greatest things about the royal game that happened throughout the year.

Here's everything you need to know about each category of the Chess.com Awards, our nomination criteria, and more:

Consideration Period

Every year, we ask the community to vote on their favorite content creators, players, moves, and more. Nominees will be announced in mid-December after major events in early December are concluded. Voting will be open until January 1st.

Any achievements taking placed after voting is opened may be considered in the following year's Chess.com Awards.

Player Of The Year

The Player of the Year category celebrates the player who defined chess that year. The nominations in this category consider players' year-round performance instead of a single-event victory and are open to all players.

Woman Player Of The Year

The Woman Player of the Year category awards the top woman player with the most significant chess accomplishments of the year. The nominations in this category consider players' year-round performance instead of a single-event victory. 

Creator Of The Year

The chess world is consuming more content than ever before. Whether it's a YouTube video, a legendary X post, a great new book, or any other type of content, there's always a creator putting out amazing chess pieces to their adoring audiences.  This category highlights everyone in the content creation space. We consider creators' impact, innovation, and reach to come up with nominations. 

Game Of The Year

The Game of the Year category celebrates the most fantastic game of the year. From tactical slugfests to positional masterpieces, any game played during the Awards consideration period can be nominated. This category highlights the complete effort of a game, from the very beginning to the last move.

Move Of The Year

Sometimes, a move is so stunning that you can enjoy just staring at it in amazement for several minutes. The Move of the Year category highlights these brilliant moves that come out of nowhere and swipe you off your feet. Unlike the Game of the Year category, the Move of the Year award doesn't consider what happened in the rest of the game but rather celebrates a single moment when one of the players busts out a brilliant move.

Rising Star Of The Year

The Rising Star category celebrates the young chess players who quickly rose through the chess ranks during the year. Players nominated for the Rising Star award must be 18 or younger. Players who have already won this category in previous years are not eligible to be nominated again.

ChessKid Of The Year

The ChessKid of the Year category celebrates the future of the game by highlighting the talented kids who, despite their young age, are already making a splash in the chess world. ChessKid of the Year nominees must be 13 years old or younger. Players who have already won this category in previous years are not eligible to be nominated again.

Commentator Of The Year

While watching your favorite players battling over the board is great, the experience can be even better when a fantastic commentator goes through the game with you. The Commentator of the Year category celebrates those who sit in front of the camera to bridge the gap between the audience and the players in an entertaining way.

Photo Of The Year

Chess is a beautiful sport, filled with fantastic but fleeting moments that overflow with emotions and stories. Luckily for us, there are many chess photographers out there who eternalize these moments with their stunning photographies. This category awards the most iconic chess photo of the year.

Book Of The Year

Chess improvers out there should pay attention to the Book of the Year award. This category celebrates the best chess books released in the year.

Chessable Course Of The Year

Chess education has expanded way beyond printed books, and students now have more resources than ever to learn and expand their chess knowledge. This category awards the best course from one of the best learning resources out there: Chessable. Courses are nominated by Chessable's staff, with the community voting for their favorite to receive the award. Nominated courses must have been released between January and December of the year of voting.

Are you excited about this year's Chess.com Awards? Let us know in the comment section below.