ChessBase Player of the Year award

ChessBase Player of the Year Award

Originally we intended calling this the "Man of the Year Award", in the 75-year tradition of Time Magazine's nomination, with the term "man" adhering to the common English usage of meaning man, woman or gender-challenged. In fact we also open our awards to electronic chess-playing entities, whom we certainly do not wish to discriminate against. "Year" is defined as the period between October 8 2000, when the BGN match in London started and including the FIDE world championships in December 2000 up to January 22, 2002, when the latest FIDE championship ended.

The winner of the ChessBase Player of the Year award will be selected by you. At the bottom of the page you will find details of the voting procedure. Before that we present some plausible nominations, but of course you can vote for anyone or anything you wish. Naturally you should give a reason for your choice.

Some Candidates

	Garry Kasparov, for shamefully losing the world championship title to one of his students, and then going on to win everything else chess has to offer. For clearly being the strongest chess player in this arm of the galaxy. For achieving a 3000+ performance at Batumi, crushing the Czech national team and winning a ten game blitz match against a world champion twelve years his junior.
	Vladimir Kramnik, for keeping his cool after winning the title from Kasparov. For getting a one million dollar match against the computer, and making them deliver its brain in a bottle to him three months in advance. For producing some marvellous quotes during the London press conference.
	Vishy Anand, for keeping his lovely humour in spite of playing minus four in Dortmund. For losing with White to an amateur in the first round for the FIDE championship and coming back like a tiger bitten by a mouse. For being generally a really cool dude.
	Vassily Ivanchuk, for at last getting a hold on his nerves and actually beating Anand to proceed to the FIDE finals. For being such a deep thinker in chess and giving interviews in English when he has to struggle for each profound word.
	Ruslan Ponomariov, for actually winning the FIDE world championship finals while still in his teens. For being so tenacious in his defence it could drive anyone nuts, but also playing some exciting new chess. For understanding the latest FIDE time controls. For having such a marvellous intimidating glare.
	Anatoly Karpov, for winning a tournament. For teaching us that contracts can always be modified if urgent needs arise, and putting the interests of Mother Russia ahead of his own. For not trying to get back into the first tournament when he gets knocked out in round one of the second.
	Kirsan Illumzhinov, for personally sinking $40 dollars into chess without ever seeing a penny in return. For keeping sluggish grandmasters on their toes by changing the time controls of the game once every 72 hours.
	Viktor Korchnoi, for showing us that Duracel is not the only thing that keeps going and going. For crushing strong grandmasters more than fifty years his junior in top tournaments. For loving chess more intensely than anyone else we know. For being married to Petra.
	Judit Polgar, for being the one true mega-chick in chess, with an honest-to-goodness unauthorized fan club. For pulling out the chain saw against male colleagues and making them whinge and squirm through the game. For always being bright and cheerful, unlike other players of her calibre.
	Alexandra Kosteniuk, for the most spectacular glamour gallery published by any chess player. For putting up a tremendous fight at the FIDE world championship and almost making it at the age of 17. For the spectacular glamour gallery.
	Rudy Giuliani, ex-mayor of New York, for opening the world championship match between Kasparov and Anand on the observation deck of the World Trade Center on September 11, 1995. For beating Osmar bin Laden to Time Magazine's Person of the Year award. Because every nomination in the world must include Rudy.
	Fritz 7, for pulling the greatest Houdini in chess history to qualify to play against Kramnik in Bahrain. For helping humans play against humans on the Internet, although it likes nothing better than get into a rumble itself. For leading in all computer rating lists for longer than anyone can remember.
	Deep Junior, for being the first program with a regular GM norm, for sacrificing material ant taking Fritz to the cleaners – almost – at the BGN qualifirer. For winning the multi-processor section of the 2001 world computer chess championship.
	Shredder 6, for joining the ChessBase family and winning the single-processor section of the world computer championship – for the fifth time in succession. For coming with two alternative user interfaces on the same CD, and for having the best endgame oracle built into it.
	Pocket Fritz, for being the very coolest application available for the iPAQ and Jornada. For making crib sheets obsolete at chess tournaments. For playing against the biological mosters Michael Adams and Peter Leko and actually getting a draw against the latter.
	Chess Tiger, for being written in between hurricanes by a Frenchman in Guadaloupe, and still being one of the strongest programs around. For going to a strong tournament in Argentina winning it with a performance rating of 2788.
	Man, woman or thing of the year. Naturally you can nominate anyone or anything you want, but it should be bigger than a single molecule and smaller than a planet. Please give a few short reasons for your choice.

How to vote

• You can nominate up to five players for the award, but remember to give them a clear ranking (1 – 5).

• Please send your nominations to the email address given below. All entries must arrive by February 28, 2002.

• Only one entry per person. If more than one solution is received only the first will be considered. Please include a full name and place of residence.

• Please include brief comments on your top nominations – just two or three lines per player. Do not attach your message as a Word or TXT file, but include the entire text into the body of the message.

• There will be a special prize – a copy of Fritz7 signed by the winner of this nomination or by a world chess champion – selected by chance from all entries received by us.

The poll is now closed.
Results and winners will be announced on March 10.