English Chess Forum

Many of you will have spotted this already, but there is a chance for ECF members to vote online for the ECF Player of the Year at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=9638.

To quote John Wickham's announcement on the website:

Direct Members of the Federation, Journalists, Members of the Board and of the ECF Selection Committees are entitled to vote for this prestigious title. In making your decision you should take into account exceptional performances; overall good results; quality of chess played; sportsmanship; how players represent chess to the wider public; and any other aspect you consider important.

Correspondence players may be considered as well as over-the-board players. The period under consideration is May 2010 to April 2011

Andrew

I voted. But how did the system know if I was entitled to vote?

Strange results so far: http://polldaddy.com/poll/4723214/?view=results

How was the short list drawn up?

im wondering how they decided upon this shortlist?

i feel like i have made better gains than over half of the list and should be on it,feel insulted just a tad.

david

Indeed, both who drew up the shortlist and how? Isn't Nick Pert's excellent British, and generally excellent season - not to mention his activity - worthy of even being on the shortlist? I wonder whether the list is drawn up by someone who is just churning out the names that are familiar to him, only some of whom have actually done very well (by their own standards) of late. I don't know what David Howell has achieved this last season, and some others - Adams at the British, Jovanka, qualifying for Womens World Ch, Short in Gibraltar, have only excelled once to my recollection.

(Not to mention the fact that, echoing Sean's query, presumably anyone can vote for a player as many times as they wish).

The good news is that the most obvious candidate, Yang-Fan, is comfortably in the lead nonetheless.

(Edit: I earlier wondered whether Sarah Hegarty had done well in other events besides the Olympiad but I now realise that she has, and so I think that she is rightly nominated)

In view of the bombardment of complaints I've received regarding the player of the year despite having no involvement I've been advised to respond with the following:

"Whilst I was consulted, along with other Board members, at the time that the shortlist was compiled, I am not responsible for the final list. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of a shortlist that choices have to be made, and the Board considers the list as it stands to be a good representation of the strongest candidates (including Men's, Women's, Boys' and Girls' chess).

"Requests for additional names to be included should be addressed to Andrew Walker at the ECF Office via [email protected] who will add names for which there is evidence of support from more than one person. If you have any concerns about the process as a whole, these should be addressed to John Wickham at [email protected] ."

so, no insights at all about how the choices are made! And why must there necessarily be representatives from each category - has Nick lost out through being an adult male? (Ok, I'll stop posting on this. It should really be a two horse race between Yang-Fan and Luke, anyway, though I would imagine that Nick would have got some substantial support).

On a lighter note, no regular Forumite did well enough to make the shortlist. There's possibly a lesson there, for those of us who spend so much time here ....

Are the ECF going to use AV? (sorry could not resist that!)

Alan Kennedy wrote:Why not use use AV instead of a poll? (sorry could resist that)

I'd rather use Range Voting. It's a much better voting method than either of the options in today's referendum.

Sean Hewitt wrote:Andrew

I voted. But how did the system know if I was entitled to vote?

It doesnt - seen as I voted and i'm not even english let a lone a member of the ECF. I just tried voting again but it says I've already voted so it must log the IP. Mayb'e i'll do it from work tomorrow

I'd like to see more categories, like at any two bob awards ceremony. I think the Player of the Year is intended to reflect personality and input in addition to performance. So perhaps something like:

Best Female Junior (Hoare, Messam-Sparks, Anna Wang)

Best Male Junior (Zhou, Clarke, Williams, Harvey, Sanders, O'Toole, Haria, Malhotra)

Most Improved Female (Yurenok, York-Andersen, Hoare)

Most Improved Male (Hawkins, Haydon, Zhou, Harvey, O'Toole, Sanders, Adair)

Player of the Year (A selection of the above plus the top people)

Phil Makepeace wrote:I'd like to see more categories, like at any two bob awards ceremony. I think the Player of the Year is intended to reflect personality and input in addition to performance. So perhaps something like:

Best Female Junior (Hoare, Messam-Sparks, Anna Wang)

Best Male Junior (Zhou, Clarke, Williams, Harvey, Sanders, O'Toole, Haria, Malhotra)

Most Improved Female (Yurenok, York-Andersen, Hoare)

Most Improved Male (Hawkins, Haydon, Zhou, Harvey, O'Toole, Sanders, Adair)

Player of the Year (A selection of the above plus the top people)

How about ECForumite of the year?

Sean Hewitt wrote: How about ECForumite of the year?

I would short list the following :

1. Roger D de Coverly (for services to Game Fee)

others are possible but I am tired and emotional after two schools worth of entertainment today!

For me the obvious choise is Johnny Hawkins his improvement has been enormous concidering the limited tournaments he gets to play.Every game he now plays it serious preasure for him.