English Chess Forum player of the year: The Poll

[IM Jack Rudd]

OK, here it is. The forum's poll for English Chess Forum player of the year, with nominations as chosen by you in this thread.

This will be a poll conducted using Approval Voting; you may vote for as many candidates as you like, and the candidate with the most votes wins.

This poll will be open until the end of June.

[Carl Hibbard]

Hawkins leading surprises me a little.

[Paul Dargan]

Really Carl? Maybe a bit mainstream for the conversation on the forum so far ... but effectively self-taught to GM and winning the British ... starting with what was it 6/6 in the first week, then coasting in with 5 draws, when he was probably better with Black when he agreed draws with Hebden, Howell and Pert? in the last round. His win v's Marin and GM norm at IoW ... not saying there arent many other worthy candidates and I 'approved' quite a lot in this new voting scheme ... but I think the Hawk's are obvious, well publicised and of the level people would feel should be recognised ... so I always had him to be in the Top3.

I'm not his campaign manager - though I do feel a Northern affinity, even if he has legged-it down South these days.

Paul

[Carl Hibbard]

Really Carl? Maybe a bit mainstream for the conversation on the forum so far ... but effectively self-taught to GM and winning the British ... starting with what was it 6/6 in the first week, then coasting in with 5 draws, when he was probably better with Black when he agreed draws with Hebden, Howell and Pert? in the last round. His win v's Marin and GM norm at IoW ... not saying there arent many other worthy candidates and I 'approved' quite a lot in this new voting scheme ... but I think the Hawk's are obvious, well publicised and of the level people would feel should be recognised ... so I always had him to be in the Top3.

I'm not his campaign manager - though I do feel a Northern affinity, even if he has legged-it down South these days.

Paul

No he would be a really deserving winner I just felt Howell would walk it but perhaps not.

[Paul Dargan]

Cheddleton for club of the year perhaps with the top 3 so far ...

[Alan Walton]

Cheddleton for club of the year perhaps with the top 3 so far ...

I would say team of the year, considering they only really play 4NCL for them

[Paul Dargan]

Of the three of them, only really Keith posts on here ... I guess the other two are so well known they get votes automatically.

[LawrenceCooper]

We seem to have stalled on 198 votes so I'm hoping sending this thread back to the top of the list might encourage a few more to vote.

[Carl Hibbard]

We seem to have stalled on 198 votes so I'm hoping sending this thread back to the top of the list might encourage a few more to vote.

It is only members of the forum so be interesting to see the final count.

[Mick Norris]

I assume the total is number of votes, rather than number of voters which would be a more interesting stat (given we can vote for as many, or few, players as we like)

[IM Jack Rudd]

The total is number of votes, yes. Number of voters would indeed be a more interesting stat.

[Paul Douglass]

Voted for Keith Arkell, Jonathan Hawkins, David Howell and Brendan O'Gorman.

Keith - fantastic ambassador for English Chess and still going strong after all these years!
The Hawk due to a meteoric rise without any support the ECF.
David Howell in getting ever so close to the 2700 mark.
Brendan O'Gorman in playing a fantastic amount of chess (supporting the various events) in country and the lovely photos of the venues and players. Superb dedication.

A really good post on the forum. A pity Ray Keene wasn't any of the options as I might have also voted for him.

[Mike Truran]

I thought it more than a little ironic that Carl, despite many vociferous (and justified) comments about censorship in the other place, has seen fit, apparently after a complaint from a forumite, to remove the two YouTube Hitler parodies with neither prior consultation nor subsequent notification.

I have agreed with Carl that I should raise the matter publicly, as there seems to me to be an important point of principle here.

Double standards?

[Paul Dargan]

I did think I'd seen the link here - but found it through the OPs facebook page again anyway ...

[Ian Thompson]

I thought it more than a little ironic that Carl, despite many vociferous (and justified) comments about censorship in the other place, has seen fit, apparently after a complaint from a forumite, to remove the two YouTube Hitler parodies with neither prior consultation nor subsequent notification.

I'm curious to know what the nature of the complaint was, particularly when they were only links to material on other websites, not something that was hosted here.