The chess community has been without the Chess Oscar for several years now. Chess has grown in popularity in the last few years, beginning with the Netflix serial "Queen's Gambit," so it is about time we have the award back for good.

There will be some changes in how the award will be chosen. First and foremost, it will be YOU, the fan. In the past, a few chess journalists voted for the Chess Oscar award. But from now on, it will be you, the chess fan.

There will be some form of cheating prevention (like we didn't have enough talking about cheating :)) - this will be in the form of voter verification, just like voting for the election. We will not be doing anything like scanning your passport. Still, we will verify each and every voter by credit card so no one can vote more than once (on less than you have several credit cards) - every voter will be charged $1 when voting, and all the cash going to promote chess and set up a chess fund.

The idea is that everyone can make an application for the fund, a chess club that needs new clocks, or a talented chess player needing funds for traveling to a big tournament.

Time has changed the way of diversity (for the good) there has never been a female winner of the Chess Oscar Award (Judit Polgar was a clear candidate in her prime) but from now on there will be an Oscar, awarded to male and female players.

The selected players will be among the first 50 players on FIDE's ranking on 1st November each year and the voting start on 15th December and runs until 1st February 2025.

There will be an option to select a player not in the Top 50 by writing the name of the player in the election form under "other".

So here you have it! Go on voting for your favorite player and help grow the chess community, and please keep coming back for news or simply subscribe to our newsletter, and we will not spam you - we expect to send news every quarter.

Frank Jensen, Founder