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.
