Association of Chess Professionals

The Association of Chess Professionals ( ACP) is an existing association of professional chess player since 2003 with an office in Paris.

The statutes of the ACP call as the first purpose of the association, the " protection of the rights of professional chess player ", which this union may be regarded therefore as the first professional chess player - union history.

Acting President of the ACP is the chess Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky, predecessors were Vadim Morochowski, Pawel and Joël Lautier Tregubow. Secretary General is Bartholomew Macieja. The ACP has 918 members of which 181 are women (as of December 2012). According to the statutes of each male and female Grandmaster and International Master, and any other way with the professional chess connected person ( chess coach, tournament organizer, journalist, etc. - but this must be advised by the ACP Board and decided ) was added.

Another purpose of the ACP is the practice and promoting pro chess world. The ACP wants to try on an organized, professional level to contacts with organizers and sponsors. In this sense, the ACP Tour was developed: a computing system that captures the strongest tournaments of the season and analyzed. With the help of an ACP - point system, a ranking list is performed, the end of the season, the most successful player 8 identifies that will then play each other the ACP Masters.

Activity unfolded the ACP during the World Cup campaign Kramnik - Lékó in Brissago 2004. In the announcement press conference for the competition grandmaster said Lautier towards FIDE that the ACP, FIDE should be no competition between Garry Kasparov and the winner of the FIDE World Cup bring about, " will actively participate in the reunification process ."