World Amateur Chess Championship
# World Amateur Chess Championship

The World Amateur Chess Championship is a tournament organised by FIDE. The world governing body intended to promote amateur chess play by holding championship tournaments linked to the Olympic Games, but only two events were held.

## History

The first championship was held the year that FIDE was founded, at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. This is considered the unofficial first Chess Olympiad, and is the only Olympiad that was an individual event. The second championship was held at the 1928 Summer Olympics in The Hague, in conjunction with the 2nd Chess Olympiad.

Chess has never been an official part of the Olympic Games, and since the chess community does not make any essential distinction between amateur and professional the championship was discontinued after 1928. However, in 1995 FIDE has revamped it to celebrate the centenary of the Hastings International Chess Congress and since then it has been held annually. The first renewed edition, held concurrently with the 1995/96 Hastings Congress from 28 December 1995 to 5 January 1996, was restricted to non-FIDE rated players. Subsequently, amateur was defined as a player with a FIDE rating below 2000 and not having attained a rating of more than 2000 in the past 2 years. Since 2016, the championship has been split into three rating categories: U-2300, U-2000 and U-1700.

According to the current FIDE regulations, the winner is awarded with the title of FIDE Master (FM), while the runner-up and the bronze medallist receive the Candidate Master (CM) title. Analogously the women's champion receives the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM), silver and bronze medallists in the women's category are granted the title Woman Candidate Master (WCM).

Since 2012, there is another World Amateur Chess Championship, organised by the Amateur Chess Organisation (ACO), which is not recognised by FIDE.

## Winners

| Year | Dates | Host | Winner(s) | Women's champion(s) |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1924 | 4 May – 27 Jul | Paris | Hermanis Matisons | |
| 1928 | 17 May – 12 Aug | Amsterdam | Max Euwe | |
| 1996 | 28 Dec – 5 Jan | Hastings | Brian Johnson | |
| 1997 | 28 Dec – 5 Jan | Hastings | Olev Schults | Catherine Dewitte |
| 1998 | 29 Dec – 11 Jan | Hastings | Viraf Avari | Rosalind Kieran |
| 1999 | 29 Dec – 10 Jan | Hastings | Gaguik Oganessian | Jessie Gilbert |
| 2000 | 29 Dec – 6 Jan | Hastings | Sven Mühlenhaus | Elaine Rutherford |
| 2001 | 27 Dec – 8 Jan | Pamplona | Bismarck Nicolás Chaverra Rojas | Maria Goni |
| 2001 | 6–13 Dec | Bento Gonçalves | Flávio Olivência | Amanda Benggawan |
| 2002 | 13–19 Dec | Bento Gonçalves | Juliano Resende Pereira | Thalita Cincinato |
| 2003 | 2–13 Jul | Tshwane | Shabier Bhawoodien | Daleen Wiid |
| 2004 | 30 Jun – 10 Jul | Cape Town | Farai Mandizha | Jenine Ellappen |
| 2005 | 31 Jul – 12 Aug | Piešťany | Cancelled | Cancelled |
| 2006 | 23 Nov – 3 Dec | Tripoli | Rachid Hifad | Nirmala Chandrasiri |
| 2007 | 11–18 Aug | Predeal | Alexandru Gabriel Duca | Eugenia-Daniela Ghita |
| 2008 | 28 Apr – 6 May | Chalkidiki | Panagiotis Galopoulos | Mitali Patil |
| 2009 | 27 Apr – 3 May | Thessaloniki | Stefan Parlog | Efstathia Andrikopoulou |
| 2010 | 19–25 Mar | Skokie | Andrew Hubbard | Yun Fan |
| 2011 | 1–10 Oct | Antalya | Bilgunn Sumiya | Bayar Anu |
| 2012 | 16–22 Apr | Chalkidiki | Haralambos Tsakiris | Laura Perez |
| 2013 | 21–30 Apr | Iași | Lehel Vrencian | Bayarsaikhan Yanjinlkham |
| 2014 | 26 Apr – 3 May | Singapore | Gijir Munkhbayar | Chitlange Sakshi |
| 2015 | 14–21 Apr | Chalkidiki | Mire Deniz Doğan | Paula-Alexandra Gitu |
| 2016 | 18–28 Apr | Chalkidiki | Zhuban Bigabylov (U2300) Khulan Enkhsaikhan (U2000) Jatin S.N. (U1700) | Georgia Grapsa (U2300) Khulan Enkhsaikhan (U2000) Diana Zakharova (U1700) |
| 2017 | 1–9 Apr | Spoleto | Win Tun (U2300) Maciej Koziej (U2000) Hope Mkhumba (U1700) | Bayarjargal Bayarmaa (U2300) Zainab Saumy (U2000) Vilena Popova (U1700) |
| 2018 | 22–29 Apr | Cagliari | Arvinder Preet Singh (U2300) Kanan Hajiyev (U2000) Batuhan Sutbas (U1700) | Bayarjargal Bayarmaa (U2300) Elisaveta Chetina (U2000) Vilena Popova (U1700) |
| 2019 | 29 Jun – 7 Jul | Colima | Elías Renzo Gutiérrez Medina (U2300) Jesús Amezcua Luría (U2000) Dashtogtokh Amarsaikhan (U1700) | Alexandra Zherebtsova (U2300) Batnasan Khaliun (U2000) Omya Vidyarthi (U1700) |
| 2020 | 2–12 Apr | Heraklion | Postponed to 2021 | Postponed to 2021 |
| 2021 | 16–26 Oct | Rhodes | Dimitrios Ladopoulos (U2300) Mukhtar Ainakul (U1700) Peter Anand (U2000) | Alexandra Zherebtsova (U2300) Glenda Madelta (U1700) Marigje Degrande (U2000) |
| 2022 | 20–30 Oct | Mellieħa | Abdilkhair Abilmansur (U2300) Tuguldur Soninbayar (U1700) Sodbilegt Naranbold (U2000) | Grigoryan Meri (U2300) Margadgua Erdenebayar (U1700) Baliuniene Margarita (U2000) |
