Titles & Awards

The ABSP welcomes players of all levels of ability and our tournaments are structured with several divisions to avoid the inexperienced having to face the experts. We commemorate the best rating improvement each year with a Most Improved Player plaque, and the UK's Highest Rated Player trophy is also awarded at the end of every year. Those who reach the very highest levels can also earn the lifetime award of Expert or Grandmaster titles through consistently high rating performance over a period of time.

Qualification criteria

Originally, each player's annual January 1st rating counted towards titles qualification. However, following a change to the rating system several years ago, we now register the unweighted rating for all games played during the calendar year. Players must play at least 30 games during the year to have a rating registered for titles purposes. The annual unweighted ratings data shows the ratings registered for titles purposes.

Expert status can be gained in any of the following ways:

  1. Three 180+ ratings in a five year period
  2. Five 170+ ratings in a five year period
  3. A five year average of 175+

Grandmaster status is gained in a similar way, but with levels 10 points higher:

  1. Three 190+ ratings in a five year period
  2. Five 180+ ratings in a five year period
  3. A five year average of 185+

Since very few tournaments were possible during the early 2020s, special arrangements apply such that no player is disadvantaged as a result. The years will only count for a player if they met the criteria outlined above. If the criteria were not met, then the year will be ignored the purposes of these calculations. The usual criteria apply for 2023 onwards. Again, due to the circumstances, the awards were not made for 2020, 2021 or 2022.

The Most Improved Player award is given to the ABSP Member who has a full rating at the start of the calendar year, plays at least 30 games throughout that year and improves their rating the most. The player's rating at the end of the year must be higher than any previous end-of-year full rating.

There is also an award given to the Highest Rated ABSP Member on January 1st of each year, provided that they have played at least 30 games during the previous year.

Players shown in bold type achieved their award during 2023

Grandmasters

Experts

Most Improved Player of the Year

The Most Improved Player award is a large trophy engraved with plaques containing the names of all previous winners. Each year's winner and improvement:

Highest Rated Player of the Year

The Highest Rated Player trophy is awarded annually to the ABSP Member with the highest ABSP rating at the end of that calendar year. The winners (rating in brackets):