BTW: It's probably too late to voice in my opinion, but I don't really like the idea of the 3 new nomination rules added last year (or rather, very early this year): seconding nominating, not being able to nominate yourself, and limit 3 nominations. I think anyone should be able to nominate anyone (excluding <cg> accounts, obviously). Worst case scenario, those nominations take up space.

<1. Best Avatar > <Annie K.>

<2. Best Username > <notyetagm>

<3. Most Helpful > <hms123>

<4. Best Post > <john barleycorn>

<5. Funniest Poster> <technical draw>

<6. Most Constructive> <cro777> and <wordfunph>.

<7. Best Profile > <Domdaniel>

<8. Best Analysis> <eyal>

<9. Best Game Collection> Game Collection: 0 by <TheFocus>

<10. Most Informed > <Karpova>

<11. Best Historian > <jessicafischerqueen>

<12. Best/Worst Pun of the Year > <Jeepers Kuipers, How'd You Beat Art Pijpers?> (S Kuipers vs A Pijpers, 2007)

<13. Player of the Year > Magnus Carlsen

Please read the procedure and schedule explained in my profile above. Note that there is a change to this year's nomination procedure: for simplicity, the distinction between "nominations" and "seconding" has been eliminated. (In a nutshell: just pick up to three nominees for every category, and don't nominate yourself.)

There are 14 categories of awards. Each category is won by a specific Chessgames member, with the exceptions of #12 (Pun of the Year) and #13 (Player of the Year). Some of you might have some questions so we scribbled some notes for each category below.

There is no special voting booth for this process. You nominate/vote by making a normal post in the Chessforum below.

<Best Avatar> This must be an avatar currently in use by the member in question.

<Best Username> It's not required that the person signed-up in 2014.

<Most Helpful> Helpful in the sense of showing new people the ropes, providing links to the live video right when everybody needs it the most, and so forth. Not to be confused with "Most Constructive" below.

<Best Post> The post in question must be from 2014.

<Funniest Poster> Chessgames admins are excluded from this category ;-)

<Most Constructive> Making helpful suggestions to improve the website, organizing Chessgames members for any productive reason, regularly doing things that help the community, etc.

<Best Profile> It's not necessary that the profile was created in 2014.

<Best Analysis> Computer analysis does NOT count.

<Best Game Collection> It's not necessary that the collection was created in 2014.

<Most Informed> The kibitzer who seems to have all the answers at the tip of his or her fingertips.

<Best Historian> You'll probably want to check out Biographer Bistro for some ideas here.

<Best/Worst Pun of the Year> See Game of the Day Archive for the previous 365 puns.

<Player of the Year> This is our new category. It is not necessarily the strongest player of the year, but the most laudable player of the year, for whatever reason.

I nominate <technical draw> for Best Avatar.

I nominate <goodevans> for Best Username.

I nominate <WannaBe> and <zanzibar> for Most Helpful.

I nominate <Annie K.> and <dakgootje> for Funniest Poster.

I nominate <wordfunph> for Most Constructive.

I nominate <Domdaniel> for Best Profile.

I nominate <Tabanus> for Best Historian.

I nominate <g2, Joy of Man's Desiring> (Boleslavsky vs Ufimtsev, 1944) and <Vladislav (Baby Don't Hurt Me)> (Tkachiev vs Ivanchuk, 2009) for Best/Worst Pun.

I nominate Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana for Player of the Year.

<The Caissars> Clarification, please - do we have a "Game of the Year" category this time? Some of your lists include it, some don't.

My mistake. Yes, we do have that category. Arasan vs Critter, 2014 accepted as the first nomination.

In case I want to add any nominations, how about just asking for the first post to be deleted?

< You may not nominate yourself. >

Darn it!

Anyway:

- I nominate <diagonalley> and <Mating Net> for Best Username(s).

- I nominate <ajile>, <goldenbear> and one of their posts (each) for best post(s): Carlsen vs Caruana, 2014

I'll say a few words on this post: to understand it, just read the previous 2 pages of kibitzing.

And the other post: Carlsen-Anand World Championship (2014) (first one to predict Anand's Berlin Wall to fall on the 25th anniversary of a famous event in Europe).

- I nominate <posoo> and <YouRang> for Funniest poster(s).

- I nominate <SwitchingQuylthulg>, <wordfunph> and <Annie K.> for most constructive(s).

A few words: they helped run the ChessBookie game. :)

- I nominate <Gold Medal Leaders> (which is technically not my account), <WinKing> and <YouRang> for best profile(s).

- I nominate <Phony Benoni> and 2 of his game collections, Game Collection: Interzonal 1970 (Palma de Mallorca) (even though it's since been turned into a tournament page) and Game Collection: Game of the Day 2014 for best game collection(s).

- I nominate <SwitchingQuylthulg> and <wordfunph> for most informed(s).

- I nominate <all the biographers at the Biographer Bistro> for best historian(s).* :)

- I nominate <The 100 Moves' War>, <Car Wars> and <Ribli's Believe it or Not> for Best/Worst Pun(s).

- I nominate <Topalov> (who's back in the 2800 club) and <Anand> (who had a great year) for Player of the Year(s).

- I nominate Topalov vs F Vallejo Pons, 2014, Bill Gates vs Carlsen, 2014 and Nakamura vs Carlsen, 2014 for Game of the Year(s).

In Topalov's game, he sacrificed a queen and rook, for a positional win.

Meanwhile, in Nakamura-Carlsen, Nakamura came close to beating Carlsen in regular time controls (for the first time ever), but lost.

There are a lot of users I should be nominating but aren't, so I'll leave that to other people (I also can't decide which ones). :)

I nominate <trulssk>, <Catfriend>, and <Alien Math> for Best Avatar.

I nominate <checkmateyourmove> for Best Username.

I nominate <Alien Math> and <Thanh Phan> for Most Helpful.

I nominate <dakgootje>, and <twinlark> for Funniest Poster.

I nominate <zanzibar>, <SwitchingQuylthulg>, and <wordfunph> for Most Constructive.

I nominate <Domdaniel> for Best Profile.

I nominate <SwitchingQuylthulg> for Most Informed.

6. Most Constructive <wordfunph> <Annie K.>

8. Best Analysis <kwid>

∞

<Best Username>

<thegoodanarchist> Why? I don't know, why not?

Plus <checkmateyourmove> that's pretty good too.

∞

<Best/Worst Pun of the Year> —

<Vladislav (Baby Don't Hurt Me)> Tkachiev vs Ivanchuk, 2009 — I don't know why, I just find this funny

<Ain't it Funny How the Knight Moves> Mieses vs Seger, 1890 — Truth be told, I can't stand Bob Segar's music, but this is just hilarious.

<Cebalo 13> M Cebalo vs Vasiukov, 2014 — Overlooking a few really bad moves by Black, a really amazing game as well.

∞

<Player of the Year> Fabiano Caruana — Nobody disputes that Carlsen is king, but Fabiano was "the one to watch."

∞

Most Constructive: <jepflast> for developing the Analysis Tree software which has helped the World Team immensely in the past several games.

Best Avatar <Sneaky>

Best Username <Phony Benoni>

Most Helpful <WannaBe>

Funniest Poster <Technical Draw>

Most Constructive <JessicaFischerQueen>

Best Profile <Phony Benoni>

Best Game Collection <Suenteus po 147>

Most Informed <Keypusher>

Best Historian <Karpova>

Best/Worst Pun of the Year: "<Suffering from c6-ness>"

Player of the Year <Magnus Carlsen>

Best Username <notyetagm>

Most Helpful <morfishine> <phonybenoni> <dzchiel>

Funniest Poster <sevenseaman> <once>

Most Constructive <JessicaFischerQueen> <sevenseaman>

Best Profile <once> <notyetagm> <sevenseaman>

Best Game Collection <Game Collection: *FORCE* your opponent to line up his pieces!> by <notyetagm>

Most Informed <patzer2>

Best Historian <phonybenoni>

Best post <notyetagm:
Yep, just imagine if someone like Carlsen or Yu Yangyi could go back in time and teach Kasparov this Anti-Berlin ♗b5x♘c6 Exchange system prior to or during his 2000 match with Kramnik.> from Qatar Masters (2014)

Best analysis <phonybenoni> <eyal> <patzer2>

Best/Worst Pun of the Year: <"Vladislav (Baby Don't Hurt Me)>

Player of the Year <Magnus Carlsen> <Fabiano Carauna>

Most helpful: <morfishine> and <FSR>

Best game collector: <Phony Benoni>

Game of the Year: <Carlsen vs Anand> game 6

I think it's a subjective link based on kibitzing page numbers as his account reads it, and recommend substituting an objective link (via <Search Kibitzing>).

However, I believe <OCF> has me on ignore.