Association of Chess Professionals

The Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) is a non-profit organisation which aims to protect the rights of professional chess players', address their concerns and to promote chess worldwide through the organisation of high-level chess tournaments and maintaining a ranking system of the top professionals (see The ACP Tour).

Besides these activities, the ACP encourages and promotes the civil engagement of chess players into the decision-making processes of FIDE (the world chess body). This was particularly evident with the formation of the joint ACP-FIDE panel Anti Cheating Committee.[1]

In 2014 the ACP announced the initiation of the Veteran's Programme along with FIDE, which seeks to provide a stipend to a few deserving Veteran players who could benefit from such support.[2] - since then 18 veterans were awarded with an annual stipend.

At the summer of 2015 the ACP united about 1100 chess professionals (International Masters, Grand Masters, International Arbiters and Organisers) from 85 countries. While the World Champion Magnus Carlsen is a notable exception, most of the World's top players, including the previous World Champion Vishwanathan Anand can be found among the ACP members.

It consists of ACP President Emil Sutovsky, ACP Chairman Maxim Dlugy, ACP Secretary General Aleksandar Colovic, ACP Treasurer Pavel Tregubov and Board Members Yuri Garrett, Bartlomiej Macieja, Anastasia Savina, Abhijit Kunte, and Jeroen van den Berg.[3]

The ACP Board coordinates all activities of the ACP. The main activities are the following:

The ACP Tour is the unique system that unites about 100 high-level chess tournaments in 25 countries. Best players of the ACP Tour qualify to participate in the annual ACP Cup – one of the most prestigious events of the global chess calendar. The idea and points system of the ACP Tour was envisioned by Pavel Tregubov, who managed the technical details from 2004-2006. During 2007–2011 the ACP Tour was managed by Yannick Pelletier. Finally, from 2012, Tregubov once again took the role of the ACP Tour Coordinator.

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