FIDE summarized 2025 on its YouTube channel by conducting polls in various categories. The voting was held during FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships. A total of 63 thousand users participated in the surveys.

Men’s Player of the Year:

1. Magnus Carlsen (69%)
2. Praggnanandhaa R (12%)
3. Vincent Keymer (12%)
4. Fabiano Caruana (7%)

Women’s Player of the Year:

1. Divya Deshmukh (38%)
2. Ju Wenjun (34%)
3. Aleksandra Goryachkina (19%)
4. Vaishali R (9%)

Young Player of the Year — Open:

1. Faustino Oro (12 y.o.) (43%)
2. Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (14 y.o.) (36%)
3. Andy Woodward (15 y.o.) (14%)
4. Ivan Zemlyanskii (15 y.o.) (7%)

Young Player of the Year — Women:

1. Alice Lee (16 y.o.) (42%)
2. Lu Miaoyi (15 y.o.) (28%)
3. Anna Shukhman (16 y.o.) (21%)
4. Afruza Khamdamova (16 y.o.) (9%)

Achievement of the Year:

1. Javokhir Sindarov (59%)
2. Levon Aronian (23%)
3. Anish Giri (13%)
4. Zhu Jiner (5%)

Non-FIDE Tournament of the Year:

1. Freestyle Chess (37%)
2. Norway Chess (29%)
3. Grand Chess Tour (19%)
4. Global Chess League (15%)

FIDE Tournament of the Year:

1. FIDE World Cup. Goa (44%)
2. FIDE Rapid and Blitz. Doha (25%)
3. FIDE Grand Swiss. Samarkand (21%)
4. FIDE Rapid and Blitz Teams. London (10%)

In 2025, Magnus Carlsen won the Esports World Cup, the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, Clutch Chess, and the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships. 12-year-old Faustino Oro became the youngest ever 2500-plus player across all time controls. Javokhir Sindarov became the youngest FIDE World Cup winner at 19.

Credit: FIDE/Michal Walusza