FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) is pleased to announce the FIDE Trainer Awards for 2020, which will recognize and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the training industry.

The FIDE Trainer Awards will be given in the following six categories, five for trainers and one for book authors:

Mikhail Botvinnik Award to the best achievement by trainer(s) in Open Section competitions

Vakhtang Karseladze Award for the best achievement by trainer(s) in women’s and/or girl’s competitions

Mark Dvoretsky Award for the best achievement by trainer(s) in junior competitions

Yuri Razuvaev Award for best contribution to grassroots education

Yuri Averbakh/Isaac Boleslavsky Award for instructional material in a book

Tigran Petrosian Award for special achievement/trainer education  

An important change is that the Razuvaev Award, which in previous years was awarded "for Contributions to Trainers Education", will now go to a grassroots trainer. We believe that this role is extremely important and too often it doesn't receive the recognition it deserves, so we would like to contribute to changing that.

There are also some novelties regarding the panel of judges, which again we tried to keep as diverse as possible with all continents represented, and keeping a balance between both experienced players and trainers. For the Trainers Award, Vladimir Kramnik, Antoaneta Stefanova and Alonso Zapata repeat in their roles, but they are now joined by Ahmed Adly, Maia Chiburdanidze, Ramachandran Ramesh, and the World Champion's trainer, Peter Heine Nielsen. 

It must be noted that when a coach is made a member of the panel, that means he is automatically out of the race for the award. That is one of the main reasons for this rotation. The awards must be for achievement in the year of the award 2019, but earlier achievements may be mentioned to strengthen a nomination.

Eligible to nominate are FIDE Presidential Board members, Continental and National Chess Federations, TRG Commission members, Principals of FIDE Endorsed Academies, FIDE Senior Trainers and past winners. All Nominations must be sent to TRG Secretary Peter Long via email at trainers@fide.com and received by 1st April.   

The Averbakh/Boleslavsky Award for "Book of the Year" is again judged separately. Nigel Short and Artur Yusupov repeat as judges, being joined on this occasion by John Donaldson. Nominations will be made by leading chess book publishers by 31st March with the shortlist published by 1st July and the winner will be declared on 21st July.

The trophies will be awarded at the Moscow Olympiad, along with the Svetozar Gligoric Award for Fair Play. 

Books nomination form
Trainers nomination form
Regulations for the Annual FIDE Trainer Awards 2020