Over 10,000 members chimed in with their votes this 12 months, and Chess.com is glad to announce the winners of the 2022 Chess.com Awards! These awards are a chance to have a good time the implausible 12 months 2022 has been for chess. They are additionally a method for the neighborhood to acknowledge and reminisce on the nice video games, strikes, gamers, creators, and different highlights this 12 months introduced us. 

In 2022, we have had all of it. Over the board, we have witnessed unimaginable performances like GM Hikaru Nakamura turning into the second Fischer Random World Champion. We noticed younger skills led by GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh D. making historical past within the Olympiad. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi additionally graced us with a record-breaking efficiency on the Candidates Tournament.

Online chess introduced us many unforgettable moments as properly. The Chess.com Global Championship set a brand new commonplace for chess occasions with its hybrid format and stay finals. The Champions Chess Tour had one other very good run, with GM Magnus Carlsen having to high fierce competitors to win all of it. And on the finish of the 12 months, tons of of hundreds of followers tuned in to look at Nakamura and Carlsen battle it out within the Speed Chess Championship finals.

At Chess.com, our members performed greater than 3.5 billion video games all year long, and that is not even counting the over 1.5 billion video games performed towards bots. We’ve additionally surpassed 100,000,000 members—if Chess.com have been a rustic, we might be the fifteenth most populous on Earth! 

As you possibly can see, chess is rising increasingly more yearly. And with such a beautiful neighborhood, it will not cease rising any time quickly!

Now, with out additional ado, it is time to reveal the winners of the 2022 Chess.com Awards. 

Player Of The Year: Hikaru Nakamura

In the tightest race so far, the second Fischer World Champion, Nakamura, gained the 2022 Player of the Year award. Carlsen completed second within the voting, by a margin of solely 11 votes! The Fischer Random title is way from the one feat the American achieved this 12 months. The “streamer-only” genius got here out of over-the-board “retirement” to win the FIDE Grand Prix and play within the Candidates Tournament. Online, other than his routine Titled Tuesday wins, Nakamura beat none apart from Carlsen to win the 2022 Speed Chess Championship.

1. Hikaru Nakamura 
2. Magnus Carlsen
3. Nodirbek Abdusattorov

Creator Of The Year

Vying with many implausible chess content material creators, IM Levy Rozman has gained the Creator of the Year award—his second consecutive 12 months profitable the class. Rozman certainly had a powerful 12 months, sustaining his place as the most important chess channel on YouTube. He was additionally featured in movies and articles by company media retailers, apart from being one of many commentators for the Chess.com Global Championship.

1. Levy Rozman
2. Hikaru Nakamura
3. Kevin Bordi

Game Of The Year

Winning the Game of the Year award is GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda‘s spectacular victory versus GM Anish Giri. Not everybody can sacrifice a chunk within the opening towards a super-GM and nonetheless come out with a win, however one way or the other the younger Polish participant pulled it off. 

1. Duda vs. Giri, Meltwater Champions Chess Tour
2. Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi, Sinquefield Cup
3. Alireza Firouzja vs. Nakamura, Candidates Tournament

Move Of The Year

1. 28.Rg7+!! by Duda towards Giri
2. 26.Nd7!! by Vasyl Ivanchuk towards Jorden van Foreest
3. 29.Bxf6!! by Nakamura vs. Andrey Esipenko

Rising Star

And who’s the prodigy who’s drawing the eye of everybody within the chess neighborhood? The Rising Star award goes to the 17-year-old Indian GM Praggnanandhaa R. At such a younger age, Pragg led a busy 12 months—after beating Carlsen 3 times and taking first within the Asian Continental Championship, {the teenager} nonetheless had the time to signal a sponsorship cope with a capital funding agency.

1. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
2. Gukesh Dommaraju
3. Arjun Erigaisi

Tournament Performance Of The Year

Great chess commentators can elevate the expertise of watching chess occasions to a complete new degree—be it by breaking down the place for the viewers, sharing their pleasure for the sport, or throwing the occasional “Whoop!” throughout the broadcast. And in 2022, nobody did it higher than GM Daniel Naroditsky, who took the Commentator of the Year award.

1. Daniel Naroditsky
2. Levy Rozman
3. David Howell

Event Of The Year

With on-line and OTB chess competitions going full steam, there have been plenty of implausible tournaments all year long. But one occasion, specifically, stole the highlight after turning into the second-most watched in chess historical past: the 2022 Speed Chess Championship. 

Story Of The Year

Not surprisingly, the most important story of 2022 is Peter Dogger’s “Magnus Carlsen Will Not Defend World Championship Title.” It’s not yearly that the reigning world champion and finest participant on the planet decides to surrender the crown. With greater than 550,000 reads, this information piece immortalizes a historic second in chess historical past. 

Computer Game Of The Year

Watching high chess engines enjoying chess is a novel expertise. No different chess video games are as lovely—and, at occasions, chaotic—as engine chess. This 12 months, Stockfish‘s unbelievable tactical victory over Leela Chess Zero takes the prize for Computer Game of the Year. Stockfish sacrificed materials left and proper to roll over its silicon nemesis in a sport stuffed with concepts that no human thoughts might ever give you.

1. Stockfish vs. Lc0, TCEC Season 23 – Superfinal
2. Stockfish vs. Lc0, CCC 17 Blitz: Finals
3. Stockfish vs. Lc0, CCC 17 Blitz: Semifinals

Member Of The Year

Book Of The Year

A variety of assets can assist you enhance your chess, however books proceed to be one of the efficient. And in case your New Year’s resolutions embody getting higher on the royal sport, it’s best to learn the 2022 Book of the Year, Improve Your Chess Calculation by GM R. B. Ramesh.

1. Improve Your Chess Calculation by R. B. Ramesh
2. The Unstoppable American by Jan Timman
3. Chess Queens by Jennifer Shahade

Winners Of Free Diamond Memberships