2022 Samford Fellows Announced

The FRANK P. SAMFORD, JR. CHESS FELLOWSHIP, marking its thirty sixth annual award, has selected Grandmasters Hans Niemann of New York, Abhimanyu Mishra of Englishtown, New Jersey and Christopher Yoo of Dublin, California, International Master Carissa Yip of Andover, Massachusetts, and FIDE Master Alice Lee of North Oaks, Minnesota, as its 2022 Fellows. The Samford has become the richest and most important chess fellowship in the United States having awarded over two million dollars the past three decades.

Since its 1987 inception, the Fellowship has proven very useful. The total value of the Fellowships has been increased several times over the years and is now $70,000 annually. Niemann will receive $25,000 and Mishra $15,000. Lee, Yip and Yoo will each receive $10,000. Fellows are eligible to receive up to a maximum $84,000 in total support. The winners’ term begins June 1, 2022.

The winners were chosen by the Samford Fellowship Committee, consisting of Paul Samford (son of Frank P. Samford III and grandson of Samford Fellowship founder Frank P. Samford, Jr.), former U.S. Chess Champion Grandmaster Yury Shulman and International Master John Donaldson. The winners’ potential was determined based on their chess talent, work ethic, dedication and accomplishments. The Fellowship is administered by the U.S. Chess Trust with particularly valuable services provided by Al Lawrence.

The Samford Chess Fellowship was created by the late Frank P. Samford, Jr. of Birmingham Alabama. Mr. Samford was a distinguished attorney and CEO of Liberty National Life Insurance Company (now Torchmark). He was active in civic, business, political, educational and cultural affairs. Mr. Samford was also an enthusiastic competitor in chess tournaments. After providing financial support for several chess projects, he decided to do something significant for American chess. The result was the Samford Fellowship.

Since its inception the Fellowship has proven very successful. Many Samford Fellows have become strong Grandmasters, members of the United States Olympiad team and US Champions. Four of the five members (Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Sam Shankland and Ray Robson) of the 2016 and 2018 US Olympiad teams which finished respectively first and tied for first, are former Samford Fellows.

Generous contributions from the late Mrs. Virginia Samford and the Torchmark Corporation support the Fellowship. The Samford Fellowship is a fitting memorial to an extraordinary man. The dedication, creativity and achievement that marked Mr. Frank P. Samford, Jr.’s life are examples for all chess players to admire and emulate.

Samford Winners:
1987 Joel Benjamin
1988 Maxim Dlugy
1989 Patrick Wolff
1990 Alex Fishbein
1991 Ilya Gurevich
1992 Alex Sherzer
1993 Ben Finegold
1994 Gata Kamsky
1995 Josh Waitzkin
1996 Tal Shaked
1997 Boris Kreiman
1998 Dean Ippolito
1999 Greg Shahade
2000 Michael Mulyar
2001 Eugene Perelshteyn
2002 Varuzhan Akobian
2003 Dmitry Schneider
2004 Rusudan Goletiani
2005 Hikaru Nakamura
2006 David Pruess
2007 Josh Friedel
2008 Vinay Bhat
2008 Irina Krush
2009 Ray Robson
2010 Robert Hess
2011 Alex Lenderman
2012 Timur Gareev
2013 Sam Shankland
2014 Daniel Naroditsky
2015 Samuel Sevian
2015 Kayden Troff
2016 Wesley So
2017 Jeffrey Xiong
2018 Awonder Liang
2018 Samuel Sevian
2019 Awonder Liang
2019 Samuel Sevian
2019 Christopher Yoo
2020 Nicholas Checa
2020 Awonder Liang
2020 Carissa Yip
2020 Christopher Yoo
2021 Praveen Balakrishnan
2021 Akshat Chandra
2021 Nicholas Checa
2021 Abhimanyu Mishra
2021 Hans Niemann
2021 Carissa Yip
2021 Christopher Yoo
2022 Alice Lee
2022 Abhimanyu Mishra
2022 Hans Niemann
2022 Carissa Yip
2022 Christopher Yoo