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Javokhir Sindarov received the inaugural FIDE Excellence Award for Best Chess Player — Male on 27 September at the closing ceremony of the 46th World Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, beating a shortlist that included Magnus Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju and Fabiano Caruana.
FIDE established the Excellence Awards this year, with the prizes to be presented every two years. The Best Male category recognised achievements across the full Olympic cycle from September 2024 to August 2026. Ten grandmasters were shortlisted following an open nomination process; a special FIDE jury compiled the shortlist and a separate expert panel chose the winners across all 11 categories.
The other nominees alongside Sindarov were fellow Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi (India), Alireza Firouzja (France), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Vincent Keymer (Germany) and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (India), in addition to Carlsen, Caruana and Gukesh.
A cycle that rewrote Sindarov’s career
The two-year window under review produced the most consequential results of Sindarov’s career. In 2025 he won the FIDE World Cup, defeating China’s Wei Yi in the final to become the youngest champion in the tournament’s history and securing a place in the Candidates Tournament. He then won the Candidates Tournament in April 2026 with a round to spare, earning the right to challenge Gukesh Dommaraju for the world championship title. Over the period he gained approximately 100 rating points and climbed into the world’s top four.
Sindarov had been nominated in two categories when FIDE announced the shortlists in July — Best Chess Player and Breakthrough of the Year. The latter award went to Turkish player Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
Gold at home, bronze on board two
The award arrived at the end of a triumphant home Olympiad. Uzbekistan’s men’s team won the team title in Samarkand, finishing with 20 points from 10 wins and one draw across 11 matches — Olympic gold for the second time after Chennai 2022. Sindarov contributed 7 points from 10 games on board two, recording five wins, four draws and one loss, and earned the individual bronze medal on that board with a performance rating of 2797.
His international career is supported by the National Bank of Uzbekistan, which funds his tournament participation, preparation and coaching.
India’s Divya Deshmukh won the Best Chess Player — Female category. Her shortlist included Bibisara Assaubayeva, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Humpy Koneru, Lei Tingjie, Anna Muzychuk, Tan Zhongyi, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Ju Wenjun and Zhu Jiner.