The John Fawole Chess Awards

The John Fawole Chess award is a prestigious national chess award presented to Nigerian chess players both home and abroad. The key goal of the award is to celebrate excellence for chess players who have contributed immensely to the development of chess in Nigeria, either through an excellent representation of Nigeria in chess events or through a deliberate and charitable promotion of chess among the citizens of Nigeria.

The John Fawole Chess Awards is also an avenue for creating chess awareness and popularity and also a driving force to increase the motivation of chess players.

The Award is first of its kind in Nigeria and West Africa; this is majorly because even though we’ve had great players and people who are working really hard to see that chess is at the fore front of sports in Nigeria, there has never been a reputable and consistent platform of appreciating and recognizing performances of chess players, chess Arbiters, Administrators, Organizers and Coaches.

The John Fawole Chess Awards started in the year 2016 by FIDE Master John Oyeyemi Fawole, a former National Chess Champion (FIDE Instructor & US National Master) and a superb advocate of chess in Nigeria.

The John Fawole Chess Awards stands at par with (Nigeria Sports awards) and ever since inception in 2016, we’ve been able to organize awards online and give out over 30 Awards between 2016 & 2017. The year in review (2018) will have 40 Awards to be given out to chess players, coaches, organizers, trainers and administrators, for their excellence on and off the chess board.

More so, John Fawole chess is also actively involved in training and raising chess prodigies in Nigeria. This is done through our sister companies, BruvsChess Academy and BruvsChess Media.

Our hashtag on Social Media is #TheJohnFawoleChessAwards

CATEGORIES

The John Fawole Chess awards 2018 will have 20 major categories and 20 Awards of recognition for the year in review.

1. Most Outstanding Chess Player Award (Male)
2. Most Outstanding Chess Player Award (Female)
3. Arbiter of the year Award (Male)
4. Arbiter of the year Award (Female)
5. Best Organized Chess Tournament of the year Award
6. Tournament Director of the year Award
7. Most Outstanding Senior Award
8. Most outstanding Chess player in WAUG (Male)
9. Most outstanding Chess player in WAUG (Male)
10.  Promoter of the Year Award
11.  Most outstanding Grassroots Development Project- “Chess In The Slum”
12.  Personality of the year Award
13.  Most Outstanding All Time Tournament Director
14.  Team Leader of the Year
15.  Most Outstanding U-10 Player Award (Male)
16.  Most Outstanding U-10 Player Award (Female)
17.  Most Outstanding U-20 Player (Male)
18.  Most Outstanding U-20 Player (Female)
19.  Most Consistent Online Player Award
20.  Best Online Tournament Award

And 20 Awards of Recognition for icons who have contributed immensely to the development of Chess in Nigeria.

SELECTION PROCESS

Awardees are chosen from a list of nominated individuals by their performances in the year in review. Online polls are then launched for chess players to vote which takes about a month for the voting window period. Next, is the panel of judges which includes the following names:

Dr. Lanre Seye Oluwalasinu– Chairman

Mr. Dara Adegbayi– Member

Ms. Hafsat Bello-Osagie-Member

Mrs. Akinola Olufunmilayo– Member

Mrs. Abolade Olanipekun– Member

Mr. Eyenghe Sunny– Member

Mr. Yakkon Damaryam- Member

The duty of our panel of judges is to look critically at each of the nominees in the award categories and decide who merited a particular award. Voting through online poll only equals 60%, while the panel of judges have 40% to add to the votes and decide a winner. This is been going on for the past two years and the more reason why we are organizing the 2018 edition as a physical event. So far, our panel of judges have done a great job.

Moving forward the John Fawole chess awards aims at extending its Awards to also include players from West Africa and Africa as a whole and also to international personalities who have one way or another contributed to chess in Africa and the world beyond.

In addition, In the near future, we also want to add a cash prize to junior category of the awards for scholastic purposes and opportunities. It feels really good to have chess playing kid on scholarship based on their chess performances.