2022 Chess.com Awards Winners

Over 10,000 members chimed in with their votes this year, and Chess.com is happy to announce the winners of the 2022 Chess.com Awards! These awards are an opportunity to celebrate the fantastic year 2022 has been for chess. They are also a way for the community to recognize and reminisce on the great games, moves, players, creators, and other highlights this year brought us. 

In 2022, we've had it all. Over the board, we've witnessed incredible performances like GM Hikaru Nakamura becoming the second Fischer Random World Champion. We saw young talents led by GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh D. making history in the Olympiad. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi also graced us with a record-breaking performance at the Candidates Tournament.

Online chess brought us many unforgettable moments as well. The Chess.com Global Championship set a new standard for chess events with its hybrid format and live finals. The Champions Chess Tour had another superb run, with GM Magnus Carlsen having to top fierce competition to win it all. And at the end of the year, hundreds of thousands of fans tuned in to watch Nakamura and Carlsen battle it out in the Speed Chess Championship finals.

At Chess.com, our members played more than 3.5 billion games throughout the year, and that's not even counting the over 1.5 billion games played against bots. We've also surpassed 100,000,000 members—if Chess.com were a country, we'd be the 15th most populous on Earth! 

As you can see, chess is growing more and more every year. And with such a wonderful community, it won't stop growing any time soon!

Now, without further ado, it's time to reveal the winners of the 2022 Chess.com Awards. 

• Player Of The Year
• Creator Of The Year
• Game Of The Year
• Move Of The Year
• Rising Star
• Tournament Performance Of The Year
• Commentator Of The Year
• Event Of The Year
• Story Of The Year
• Computer Game Of The Year
• Member Of The Year
• Book Of The Year
• Winners Of Free Diamond Memberships

Player Of The Year: Hikaru Nakamura

In the tightest race to date, the second Fischer World Champion, Nakamura, won the 2022 Player of the Year award. Carlsen finished second in the voting, by a margin of only 11 votes! The Fischer Random title is far from the only feat the American accomplished this year. The "streamer-only" genius came out of over-the-board "retirement" to win the FIDE Grand Prix and play in the Candidates Tournament. Online, aside from his routine Titled Tuesday wins, Nakamura beat none other than Carlsen to win the 2022 Speed Chess Championship.

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

Creator Of The Year

Vying with many fantastic chess content creators, IM Levy Rozman has won the Creator of the Year award—his second consecutive year winning the category. Rozman indeed had an impressive year, maintaining his position as the biggest chess channel on YouTube. He was also featured in videos and articles by corporate media outlets, besides being one of the 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 impressive victory versus GM Anish Giri. Not everyone can sacrifice a piece in the opening against a super-GM and still come out with a win, but somehow the young Polish player 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

There was no shortage of brilliant moves this year: game-saving queen sacrifices, untouchable hanging pieces, and more. But what is the best among them all? According to the community, the best move comes from the best game: Duda's 28.Rg7+!! against Giri—an astounding rook sacrifice that required a subsequent queen sacrifice for a forced mate.

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

Rising Star

And who's the prodigy who's drawing the attention of everyone in the chess community? The Rising Star award goes to the 17-year-old Indian GM Praggnanandhaa R. At such a young age, Pragg led a busy year—after beating Carlsen three times and taking first in the Asian Continental Championship, the teenager still had the time to sign a sponsorship deal with a capital investment firm.

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

Tournament Performance Of The Year

The chess community had many surprises this year, but perhaps the most pleasant was the official return of Nakamura to competitive over-the-board competition. With many successful performances, his Fischer Random World Championship title secures the Tournament Performance of the Year award for the American.

1. Hikaru Nakamura, Fischer Random World Championship
2. Ian Nepomniachtchi, Candidates Tournament
3. Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 44th Chess Olympiad

Commentator Of The Year

Great chess commentators can elevate the experience of watching chess events to a whole new level—be it by breaking down the position for the viewers, sharing their excitement for the game, or throwing the occasional "Whoop!" during the broadcast. And in 2022, no one did it better 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 online and OTB chess competitions going full steam, there were a lot of fantastic tournaments throughout the year. But one event, in particular, stole the spotlight after becoming the second-most watched in chess history: the 2022 Speed Chess Championship. 

Story Of The Year

Not surprisingly, the biggest story of 2022 is Peter Doggers' "Magnus Carlsen Will Not Defend World Championship Title." It's not every year that the reigning world champion and best player in the world decides to give up the crown. With more than 550,000 reads, this news piece immortalizes a historical moment in chess history. 

Computer Game Of The Year

Watching top chess engines playing chess is a unique experience. No other chess games are as beautiful—and, at times, chaotic—as engine chess. This year, Stockfish's unbelievable tactical victory over Leela Chess Zero takes the prize for Computer Game of the Year. Stockfish sacrificed material left and right to roll over its silicon nemesis in a game filled with ideas that no human mind could ever come up with.

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

Our Member of the Year award goes to @R_Doofus, who recently became our site and discord moderator, thanks to his efforts in helping the community. R_Doofus cares about chess and has a passion for helping people grow, helping other members to understand how to use our website, and teaching them everything he knows about chess.

Book Of The Year

A lot of resources can help you improve your chess, but books continue to be one of the most effective. And if your New Year's resolutions include getting better at the royal game, you should read the 2022 Book of the Year, Improve Your Chess Calculation by GM R. B. Ramesh. This world-renowned coach has the information from this book available as a Chessable course as well.

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

Below is the list of the 10 lucky members who won free diamond memberships:

One year

1. @BarryBeef
   

Six months

1. @Marecliii
2. @brantteunis
3. @quast5252
4. @Xarfrax
   

Three months

1. @Konsta-K
2. @Haloys
3. @epzilla
4. @Jamusz
5. @MakeMeKing00