The FIDE Trainers Commission is pleased to announce the winners of the 15th FIDE Trainer Awards 2023, which recognize and celebrate the achievements of the chess training community and the best chess books of the year 2022.

Ramesh R B (IND)
Mikhail Botvinnik Award 2023

Ramesh R B (IND) wins the Mikhail Botvinnik Award for the best achievement in Open Section competitions. Over the last few years has worked with many Indian chess stars, including Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa; the winner of Dubai Open 2022, Aravindh Chithambaram; Rameshbabu Vaishali and the bronze winner in the World Women's Rapid Championship and Savitha Sree. Ramesh R B also captained Indian Team B, which earned bronze at the 2022 Chess Olympiad.

Abhijit Kunte (IND)
Vakhtang Karseladze Award 2023

India's fourth GM, Abhijit Kunte (IND) receives the Vakhtang Karseladze Award for the best achievement by a trainer in women's and/or girl's competitions. Serving as non-playing captain and coach, he led the Indian Women's Team to silver in the World Women's Team Championship (2021) and Asian Games (2022) and to bronze at the 44th Chess Olympiad.

Djakhangir Agaragimov (AZE)
Mark Dvoretsky Award 2023

Djakhangir Agaragimov (AZE) has been chosen by the judges for the Mark Dvoretsky Award for the best achievement by a trainer in junior events. Over many years of coaching, Djakhangir raised several GMs, WGMs, and IMs. His pupils became winners and medalists of European Championships in different age groups. In 2022, his student GM Abdulla Gadimbayli won the World Junior U20 Championship title.

The Yuri Averbakh/Isaac Boleslavsky Award for the best book published in 2022 goes to "Rock Solid Chess: Tiviakov's Unbeatable Strategies: Pawn Structures", co-authored by Sergei Tiviakov and Yulia Gokbulut and published by New In Chess.

In his first book, Sergei Tiviakov explains everything he knows about the fundament of chess strategy: pawn structures. Famous for deep chess knowledge and rock-solid positional play the Dutch GM has gathered a rich collection of strategic lessons he has been teaching worldwide, drawing mainly from his personal experience. The examples and exercises suit any reader from club player to grandmaster level.

The runners-up were "The Exchange Sacrifice According to Tigran Petrosian" by Vassilios Kotronias, published by Russell Enterprises, Inc. and "Learn from Bent Larsen" by Mihail Marin, published by Quality Chess.

These were the panels for Trainer Awards and Book Award respectively:

Trainer Awards Jury Panel 

FST & GM Le Quang Liem (VIE)
FST & GM Vladimir Akopian (USA)
FT & GM Bassem Amin (EGY)
FT & GM Mihail Marin (ROM)

Book  Awards Jury Panel

FST & GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL)
FST & GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB)
FST & GM Emil Sutovsky (ISR)

The winners of the FIDE Trainer Awards will be invited by TRG to be awarded during one of the major FIDE events.