<Penguincw> Most Helpful

<Technical Draw> Funniest Poster

< Tabanus> Best Historian

Thanks for the nomination. :)

For anyone who needs a reminder of what each category is: The Caissars chessforum (kibitz #1345)

And if you don't want to click on the link:

< Jan-02-15 The Caissars: Welcome to the 2014 Caissars, our annual jubilee where we celebrate and salute the best of chess. 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.

The nomination process begins immediately. If anybody has any questions feel free to run them by me. >

And the 2014 definition for Game of the Year: The Caissars chessforum (kibitz #785)

< <Game of the Year> The best or most notable game of 2013. > (or in this case, 2015)

I vote <User: trulssk> for Best Avatar(s).

I vote <User: thegoodanarchist> and <User: Mating Net> for Best Username(s).

I vote User: Annie K., <User: Phony Benoni> and <User: WinKing> for Most Helpful(s).

I vote <Annie K.>, <User: SwitchingQuylthulg> and <WinKing> (2 former bookies and a future one) for Most Constructive(s).

Notable Runner-up: User: Karposian (for reserving his forum for general ChessBookie chat)

I vote <User: Golden Executive> and <User: Gold Medal Leaders> and <WinKing> for Best Profile(s).

Notable Runner-up: <User: visayanbraindoctor> (take the time to read it)

I vote <SwitchingQuylthulg> for Most Informed(s).

I vote all the biographers at the Biographer Bistro for Best Historian(s).

You mean 'copy link address'. ;)

Thanks, btw. Um, do I get the impression that you intend to keep track of nominations yourself this year? You may need to mark separately those still nominated only once, and those nominated at least twice already - perhaps use 'candidate' or somesuch for the latter. :)

<Penguin> we're not voting yet, so you probably mean 'I nominate...'. ;)

<I vote all the biographers at the Biographer Bistro for Best Historian(s).>

Most Helpful - <Penguincw>

Most Constructive - <Golden Executive> (for continuing the Game Prediction Contest, for one thing)

Best Avatar - <capafan> User: capafan

I nominate <cro777> for Best Analysis.

< Annie: ... we're not voting yet, so you probably mean 'I nominate...'. ;) >

Yes, nominate. I believe I got down "vote" because I was looking at what people voted for last year, and considered re-nominating them this year.

< <I vote all the biographers at the Biographer Bistro for Best Historian(s).>

Sorry, that's not a legal nomination anymore. We did that once, and it was a nice gesture, and our wonderful Biographers thoroughly deserved it, but it basically nullifies the category. Hence now we have: <Each category is won by a specific Chessgames member> in your quote. :) >

I tried that last year too. I'll come back later for my nominations.

< ooops, I just noticed this: User: Gold Medal Leaders, that you nominate for Best Profile, is your own account. You may not nominate or vote for it. >

You can't blame a guy for trying. ;)

Far from it:

<You may nominate up to 3 users (games, etc.) for any single category. To qualify for the main voting phase, a user (game, etc.) must have at least two nominations.> >

I'm not sure if this is what he meant, but I believe triple nominations are superfluous. For example, if User X is already nominated twice for "Best Avatar", and is nominated for a 3rd time, that 3rd nomination is unnecessary, right?

I'm not sure if this is within the rules, but let's say I nominated User X for Best Avatar, and <2> other users nominated User X for Best Avatar as well (after I posted it). Is it legal for me to say something like "I withdraw my nomination of User X for Best Avatar and instead nominate User Y for Best Avatar"?

It hasn't changed much since last year, and I think the prize should go to a new profile.

Sorry, you can't nominate yourself for any category (or vote for yourself).

However, <other> users can. :)

I'd like to nominate <Party Animal> for Best Avatar. :D

Not anymore, as <Switch> explained. To clarify, this used to be correct, but we've had new rules for the last couple of years. :)

<Penguin: <Is it legal for me to say something like "I withdraw my nomination of User X for Best Avatar and instead nominate User Y for Best Avatar"?>>

It's legal, but don't do it too often, or you make yourself a pest to the admins, or whoever keeps track of the nominations. I also wish you wouldn't keep trying to game the system. Don't think we can't see what you're doing. :p

Who?

User: Travis Bickle

So here's a tally of the legal nominations so far.

Note: I use Nominee to mark members nominated by only one person so far; they need another nomination to become a Candidate, later eligible for voting.

<1. BEST AVATAR>

Candidates: User: Party Animal, User: trulssk

Nominees: User: capafan, User: technical draw

<2. BEST USERNAME>

Candidates:

Nominees: Mating Net, Party Animal, thegoodanarchist

<3. MOST HELPFUL>

Candidates: Penguincw

Nominees: Annie K., Phony Benoni, WinKing

<4. BEST POST>

Candidates:

Nominees:

<5. FUNNIEST POSTER>

Candidates: Phony Benoni

Nominees: technical draw

<6. MOST CONSTRUCTIVE>

Candidates: Golden Executive

Nominees: Annie K., SwitchingQuylthulg, WinKing

<7. BEST PROFILE>

Candidates: visayanbraindoctor

Nominees: Golden Executive, WinKing

<8. BEST ANALYSIS>

Candidates:

Nominees: cro777

<9. BEST GAME COLLECTION>

Candidates:

Nominees:

Game Collection: Puzzle of the Day 2015 by <Phony Benoni>

<10. MOST INFORMED>

Candidates: SwitchingQuylthulg

Nominees: cro777

<11. BEST HISTORIAN>

Candidates: Tabanus

Nominees:

<12. BEST (WORST) PUN OF THE YEAR>

Candidates:

Nominees:

<Brace Yourself, Winter is Coming> (Botvinnik vs W Winter, 1936)

<I Can't Believe It's Not Baadur> (Ivanchuk vs Jobava, 2015)

<Mr. Georgiev, Wear Down this Tal!> (Kiril D Georgiev vs Shaked, 1999)

<Three Times a Lady> (V Gunina vs S Sevian, 2015)

<Wyvill, Wyvill Rock You> (Anderssen vs Wyvill, 1851)

<13. PLAYER OF THE YEAR>

Candidates: Magnus Carlsen

Nominees: Pavel Eljanov, Veselin Topalov

<14. GAME OF THE YEAR>

Candidates: