Winners of Fair Play Award announced at Tata Steel Chess 2025

The winners of the 2025 Fair Play Award, established in honor of the late Azerbaijani chess player Vugar Hashimov, have been announced at Tata Steel Chess 2025 held in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.

The projects preserving the memory of European Champion Vugar Hashimov, as well as the work on organizing the Vugar Hashimov Memorial, carried out by the founder of the award, Gasim Hashimov, were highly appreciated at the closing ceremony of the tournament. Then, a minute of silence was observed in memory of Gasim Hashimov, who passed away last month.

The chess players who won the Fair Play Award in the main and Challenge tournaments were awarded at the closing ceremony.

The award, established by the Vugar Hashimov Foundation, was presented to Nodirbek Abdusattarov (Uzbekistan) and Nogerbek Kazybek (Kazakhstan).

Both chess players were awarded the prize by Vugar Ashimov's brother, a member of the Executive Committee of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation Sarkhan Hashimov.

This prize has been awarded since 2016.

Despite his short life, Vugar Hashimov made a remarkable contribution to the chess history of Azerbaijan.

He played for Azerbaijan's national team in the Chess Olympiads in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Hashimov won a bronze medal in the European Team Championship in 2007 and became the European Champion with the national team in 2009.

He was the European vice champion of the national team in 2011 and the winner of the Reggio Emilia tournament in 2010–2011.