Frank P. Samford Jr. and Frank Samford III Chess Fellowships

Megan Paragua and Carissa Yip: Photo credit Lennart Ootes

The Frank P. Samford, Jr. Chess Fellowship, marking its 40th annual award, has selected Grandmasters Andy Woodward of McKinney, Texas; Abhimanyu Mishra of Englishtown, New Jersey; Andrew Hong of Saratoga, California; Brewington Hardaway of New York City; Kirk Ghazarian of Trabuco Canyon, California; International Masters Carissa Yip of St. Louis; Alice Lee of North Oaks, Minnesota; Rose Atwell of Valencia, California; Woman Grandmaster Zoey Tang of Portland, Oregon; and FIDE Master Megan Paragua of New York City as its 2026 Fellows. The Samford is the most important chess fellowship in the United States, having awarded three million dollars over four 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. Woodward will receive $15,000, Yip $10,000, Mishra $9,000, Hong $6000, Ghazarian, Hardaway, Lee, Atwell, Tang and Paragua $5,000 each. Fellows are eligible to receive up to a maximum of $84,000 in total support. The winners’ terms began June 1, 2026.

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 of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Olympiad team which finished third (Gulruhbegim Tohirjonova, Carissa Yip, Irina Krush and Alice Lee) are current or 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
• 2012 Alejandro Ramirez
• 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 GM Awonder Liang
• 2019 GM Sam Sevian
• 2019 IM Christopher Yoo
• 2020 Nicolas 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
• 2023 Alice Lee
• 2023 Jason Liang
• 2023 Abhimanyu Mishra
• 2023 Hans Niemann
• 2023 Carissa Yip
• 2023 Christopher Yoo
• 2023 Jennifer Yu
• 2024 Abhimanyu Mishra
• 2024 Andy Woodward
• 2024 Christopher Yoo
• 2024 Andrew Hong
• 2024 Bryce Tiglon
• 2024 Carissa Yip
• 2024 Alice Lee
• 2024 Gulruhbegim Tohirjonova
• 2025 Abhimanyu Mishra
• 2025 Carissa Yip
• 2025 Andy Woodward
• 2025 Andrew Hong
• 2025 Alice Lee
• 2025 Brewington Hardaway
• 2025 Dimitar Mardov
• 2025 Zoey Tang 
• 2025 Megan Paragua
• 2026 Andy Woodward 
• 2026 Abhimanyu Mishra                                                                      
• 2026 Andrew Hong
• 2026 Kirk Ghazarian
• 2026 Brewington Hardaway
• 2026 Carissa Yip
• 2026 Rose Atwell
• 2026 Alice Lee
• 2026 Zoey Tang
• 2026 Megan Paragua