John Fawole Chess Awards, the most prestigious and anticipated chess awards in Nigeria,  was held virtually on the 12th of December 2020 and streamed Live on YouTube, Facebook and Periscope. The program began with the director of John Fawole Chess Awards, FM Fawole John Oyeyemi giving a welcoming speech. He started by giving a brief introduction to the awards.

According to him “John Fawole Chess Awards started rewarding the excellence of chess players in the year 2016. The John Fawole Chess Awards believes in rewarding excellence of chess players, chess administrators, chess coaches, organizers, or anyone doing anything related to chess…”

He went further to congratulate everyone who will be winning an award, after which he appreciated the organizers of The John Fawole Chess Awards by stating his sincere gratitude.

“My sincere gratitude goes to the team of organizers, the panel of judges, and everyone that has shown us support and encouragement for us to have a successful chess award.”  He also thanked subscribers virtually present at the awards, thereafter officially opening the virtual edition of the John Fawole Chess Awards 2020. The winners of the John Fawole Chess Awards are determined by an online vote and this year’s awards were no different. The panel of judges was however impressed with the high turnout of entries within a short time frame."

According to a statement released by the panel of judges, “A big thank you to everyone who has shown support by taking out their time to vote online for this Chess Awards. We have been totally amazed by the turnout of entries in this edition within a short time frame (less than 3 weeks and we had over a thousand entries)…”

The panel of judges who presided over this year’s awards are:

Oluwalasinu Lanre Seye as the chairman of the panel; Abolade Odugbesan; Damaryam Yakkon Kenneth; Sunny Eyenghe; Adegbayi Oluwadara.

The panel did a review of the nominees in each of the 16 categories to determine the winners.

Below you can find a full list of the categories, nominees, and winners:

1. MAN CHESS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

NOMINEES:

• ADU OLADAPO
• BALOGUN OLUWAFEMI
• AJIBOLA OLANREWAJU
• ANWULI DANIEL

WINNER: IM ANWULI DANIEL

2. WOMAN CHESS PLAYER OF THE YEAR

NOMINEES:

• PEACE SAMSON
• PERPETUAL OGBIYOYO
• TORITSEMUWA ONOKPITE
• EMMANUELLA TRUST

WINNER: TORITSEMUWA ONOKPITE

3. JUNIOR CHESS PLAYER OF THE YEAR (MALE)

NOMINEES:

• OYAKHILOME DAVID
• OYAKHILOME DANIEL
• EYETONGHAN CALLISTUS
• OKEMAKINDE TOLUWANIMI
• OKEKE ISAAC

WINNER: OKEKE ISAAC

4. JUNIOR CHESS PLAYER OF THE YEAR (FEMALE)

NOMINEES:

• NWAEZE ESTHER
• PELEMOH JESSICA
• IYEFU ONOJA
• IYANU OLOWE

WINNER: PELEMOH JESSICA

5. ORGANIZER OF THE YEAR

NOMINEES:

• BODE DUROTOYE ALI
• BRUVS CHESS MEDIA
• OGUNWOBI TOLULOPE
• MALOGY JUNIOR CHESS
• CPAN CHESS LEAGUE
• OSFI CHESS
• DASAOLU ROTIMI
• EGUAVOEN EDWARD

WINNER: DASAOLU ROTIMI

6. ONLINE CHESS ORGANIZER

NOMINEES:

• BRUVSCHESS ONLINE
• NIGERIACHESS.COM
• MALOGY- SAMSON ZLATER OFUBU
• 64 SQUARES- TITOLUWANI RAPHAEL
• CHESS NIGERIA ONLINE- SAMSON ZLATER OFUBU

WINNER: SAMSON ZLATER OFUBU AND TITOLUWANI RAPHAEL (CO-WINNER)

7. CHESS CLUB OF THE YEAR

NOMINEES:

• CREEKSIDE CHESS CLUB, PH
• ORCHID-LEKKI CHESS CLUB

WINNER: ORCHID-LEKKI CHESS CLUB

8. MOST OUTSTANDING CHESS TEAM OF THE YEAR (MALE)

NOMINEES:

• EDO CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)
• DELTA CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)
• BAYELSA CHESS TEAM (NSF 2018)
• LAGOS CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)
• OYO CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)

WINNER: OYO CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)

9. MOST OUTSTANDING CHESS TEAM OF THE YEAR (FEMALE)

NOMINEES:

• EDO CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)
• DELTA CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)
• BAYELSA CHESS TEAM (NSF 2018)
• LAGOS CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)
• OYO CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)

WINNER: OYO CHESS TEAM TO (NSF 2018)

10. YOUTH TEAM OF THE YEAR (MALE)

NOMINEES:

• FCT JUNIOR CHESS TEAM
• OGUN JUNIOR CHESS TEAM
• OYO JUNIOR CHESS TEAM
• BAYELSA JUNIOR TEAM

WINNER: BAYELSA JUNIOR TEAM

11. YOUTH TEAM OF THE YEAR (FEMALE)

NOMINEES:

• KWARA STATE JUNIOR CHESS TEAM
• DELTA STATE JUNIOR CHESS TEAM
• BAYELSA STATE JUNIOR CHESS TEAM
• LAGOS STATE JUNIOR CHESS TEAM

WINNER: LAGOS STATE JUNIOR CHESS TEAM

12. ONLINE BLITZ PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD

NOMINEES: 

• MICFEL
• DAPSAY
• DANIEL_ANWULI
• ODIROVSKI
• OLAROVFAN

WINNER: OLAROVFAN

13. ARBITER OF THE YEAR AWARD

NOMINEES:

• OGBONNAYA OBINNA
• OYELEYE P. OLAWALE
• BOYO PAUL KEHINDE

WINNER: OGBONNAY OBINNA

14. SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS

NOMINEES:

• ADESEWA OYEWOLE
• OSAYUWAMEN PEACE SALEH
• IM ODION AIKHOJE
• DR. PIUS OKIGBO
• DR. SYLVANUS EBIGWEI OLISANYE
• ARC. THEOPHILUS CAIAFAS
• MR. OMOTAYO ROBERTS
• TOP RADIO 90.9
• KENNIS FM 104.1
• OGUNSIKU BABATUNDE

15. SPECIAL SERVICE AWARDS

NOMINEES:

• FEMI SOLAJA
• OGBONNAYA OBINNA
• BOYO PAUL KEHINDE

16. CHESS REPORTER OF THE YEAR

NOMINEES:

• SOLOMON EDIVRI TROY

 WINNER: SOLOMON EDIVRI TROY

Watch The John Fawole Chess Awards on Facebook

The purpose of The John Fawole Chess Awards is to celebrate excellence and encourage every chess enthusiast. We are very positive you all feel encouraged and we look forward to seeing more Chess Champions next year!

Text: Adesewa Oyewole, BruvsChess Media