Player of the Year

[Kevin Thurlow]

Correspondence players are eligible, it says, but no CC players are listed. Admittedly, I have no idea if any English CC players are doing fantastically well at present, and I suspect that applies to most people here.

[Richard James]

One might also wonder whether the placing of the announcement of the poll immediately above a feature on one of the candidates might influence the voting in any way.

Luke should win, with honourable mentions for Yang-Fan and (just to show I'm not totally biased in favour of former RJCC members) Jonathan Hawkins.

[Richard Bates]

One might also wonder whether the placing of the announcement of the poll immediately above a feature on one of the candidates might influence the voting in any way.

Luke should win, with honourable mentions for Yang-Fan and (just to show I'm not totally biased in favour of former RJCC members) Jonathan Hawkins.

All debate is probably academic anyway, because it looks like there is a pretty good chance that Sarah Hegarty is going to win. Perhaps somebody could anticipate the citation to go with the press release?

[John Upham]

Must be too early in the morning for me, but why does 75 votes beat 93 votes

We are using Proportional Representation to decide the result...

[Richard Bates]

Must be too early in the morning for me, but why does 75 votes beat 93 votes

Tortoise and the hare.

[Mike Truran]

The stats on the ECF site seem to show Hegarty 93, McShane 40, Zhou 96. Have I read the numbers right?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I'm trying to work out whether the whole thing is a joke. Surely the ECF's Player of the Year isn't going to be decided in such a ridiculous way?

[Sean Hewitt]

I think there are irregular voting patterns going on here

[David Shepherd]

In my opinion this is complete nonsense. We seem to have devised a system where people can vote more than once and votes are distorted by seing results as the votes happen. Where players can be humiliated by getting few votes as there is no incentive vote for them as based on the latest vote they can't win.

Maybe we should ask the players to pay for ads on the page?

Sad as all the players listed have done so well and to win the title is a great honour.

[Sean Hewitt]

The vote is fatally flawed. There is no safeguard that those voting are entitled to do so, and it's easy to register multiple votes.

Let's hope this is not a forerunner to one member one vote

[Alan Walton]

I have to agree that this seems totally flawed due to the open nature of the voting system, anybody can start a campaign, say on facebook, to get all and sundry to vote for a certain person

I would expected a system which you would at least have to input your membership number before you could vote, and once voted you number is logged so you are unable to vote again

The whole process seems to become a mockery, another way damaging the reputation in chess players eyes of the ECF

[Sabrina Chevannes]

This is just embarassing for our nation that we don't award true great performance but instead have some weird popularity contest as to who can campaign the best.

I feel sorry for people like Gawain and Luke who have massively exceeded expectations throughout the year and have both consistently done well and are also true members of our olympiad squad to be part of a mockery and not rewarded properly.

[Steve Rooney]

"Fatally flawed", "mockery" and a 'weird popularity contest".

I agree entirely and hope that someone will step in to end this ridiculous process. I can't believe that any of the players involved would really want to get an award in this way. What's wrong with having a panel of wise women and men making a considered decision, or even a poll of all English titled players?

[Sabrina Chevannes]

Loz, I think you have found a great new selection process for the Olympiad team

[Alan Walton]

I have also just checked the results, and it does seem that a popularity contest has already started

I have no problem with any of the players, but to have somebody who has only gained FIDE 40 points in a calendar year close to leading this vote seems wrong, even I have gained that amount of points in the last 12 months