Association of Chess Professionals

Parts of this article (those related to its very existence: organisation dissolved on july 2023 https://en.chessbase.com/post/dissolution-of-the-acp) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2023)

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.

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] (renamed to Fair Play Commission in 2018^[2]).

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.^[3] – 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.