Hello everyone! Welcome to the latest installment of The Blogger Awards v2.0, covering entries in February 2026! This continues a blogging community tradition that recognizes the best blogs of the month in different categories.

It's time to announce the results. All those who reach the podium can expect to see the results reflected in The Blogger Awards v2.0 Medal Table in short order.

Judges: @Alina_Bakhtina_24, @PokeGirl93, and @VOB96.

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Gold: @WinT0L0ss for Checkmates To Inmates

Silver: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Valentine's Day: This Bishop Knew his F8

Bronze: @JugadaBrillante for Would you sacrifice your Elo for love?

Received votes: @AstroTheoretical_Physics

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

First place goes to @JustGettingThisOffMyChess, whose blog title is so unique and creative that it immediately caught my attention. Silver goes to @AstroTheoretical_Physics, who combines the obvious with the unobvious to stunning effect. Bronze goes to @WinT0L0ss, whose title is concise and captivating!

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PokeGirl93:

Some very good titles this month. My favorite ones were by @WinT0L0ss and @JustGettingThisOffMyChess, but I appreciated a lot of them and felt like the level was raised. My third place went to @JugadaBrillante in the end.

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VOB96:

@WinT0L0ss once again with a nice word-play and a brief title that at the same time tells the topic, but not that much. Well done. I also liked @JugadaBrillante's intriguing title, makes us question what he really meant and curious to click. Finally, @JustGettingThisOffMyChess and another chess pun that caught my attention. Honorable mentions to @WillowCat423 and @GM-Dimitrios-M.

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Gold: @Alberthepirate for Puisqu’Amour Le Commande Et Veut

Silver: @DocSimooo for Ethology and Chess: Two, Yet Not Two

Bronze: @ChessCoach4Beginners for Why Your Kid’s Group Chess Class is a Beautiful Disaster (and How to Fix It) and @JugadaBrillante for Would you sacrifice your Elo for love?

Received votes: @Fiamma_la_Fiorentina; @nova-stone

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

I'd like to give gold to @Alberthepirate—to say the least, the theme of this blog is fantastic—it's incredible, the blogger did a fantastic job of combining seemingly incompatible elements. Silver goes to @JugadaBrillante; bronze goes to @DocSimooo, who, as I've said many times, knows how to combine chess with various sciences, cultures, and so on. Great job!

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PokeGirl93:

@Alberthepirate had already earned my vote in the Valentine's Day Contest and really deserves this gold for his great idea. Silver and bronze go to @DocSimooo and @nova-stone for their originality and also relevance of the topic, respectively.

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VOB96:

I know this was helped by the BlogChamps Contest, but I chose a Valentine's Day topic as the best and gave it to @Alberthepirate, who did a fantastic job combining a poem with an original chess variant. My silver goes to @ChessCoach4Beginners because I like this kind of topic (please write more of those instead of geopolitical things ), and my third place goes to @Fiamma_la_Fiorentina because I loved the idea of doing this investigation.

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Gold: @nova-stone for The Blueprint of Avoidable Success

Silver: @Chesser1492 for If Openings Were People pt. 2

Bronze: @Mmm_Goat_Milk for How to Master Spell Chess In One Week

Received votes: N/A

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

As the Minister of Happiness, I like all things fun and cheerful! I present the gold to @nova-stone – I can't say I laughed until I cried, but there are some lines that instantly bring a smile to my face, so after reading the blog, I was left in a good mood! Silver – @Mmm_Goat_Milk – yes, that was fun! Bronze – @Chesser1492.

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PokeGirl93:

My favorite was @nova-stone and their good blending of humor with good chess advice. @Chesser1492 made fun analogies and comparisons, earning my silver. Finally, @Mmm_Goat_Milk, with some nice self-depreciating humor combined with good lighthearted text.

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VOB96:

It is not exactly humor, because we didn't have that many this month, but I think @Chesser1492's blog was funny in many of the analogies. Although the articles are not focused only on that, I think @nova-stone and @Mmm_Goat_Milk also amused me and deserved a place on the podium.

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Gold: @KevinChessSmith for Chess Couplets

Silver: @nova-stone for The Blueprint of Avoidable Success

Bronze: @nbrasington for Hopeless Romantics: The Rivalry That Sparked Love for Attack

Received votes: @read-23

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

With such excellent, professional game analysis on the blog, it would be unfair not to give @KevinChessSmith the gold! Silver goes to @nbrasington, who did a fantastic job! Bronze goes to @nova-stone.

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PokeGirl93:

With honorable mentions to @nbrasington and @HornetCruise who did a pretty good job, but my top 3 consists of @KevinChessSmith,@nova-stone, and @read-23, who made their analysis very complete and pleasant to follow.

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VOB96:

@KevinChessSmith not only analyzed many games but also did a great job in all of them. @nova-stone's analysis was not only precisa and easy to understand, but also well connected to the topic. Although simpler, I think @nbrasington also did well here.

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Gold: @AstroTheoretical_Physics for Sixty-Four Places of Serendipity

Silver: @JugadaBrillante for Would you sacrifice your Elo for love?

Bronze: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Valentine's Day: This Bishop Knew his F8

Received votes: @DocSimooo; @GM-Dimitrios-M

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

JustGettingThisOffMyChess' captivating blog has amazed and delighted me, so I'm awarding it a gold medal. Silver: @AstroTheoretical_Physics certainly deserves a medal – what a wonderful story! Bronze: @JugadaBrillante, I love this blog format where the outcome depends on you.

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PokeGirl93:

I always enjoy playing @JugadaBrillante's games, and this one was no different. But next time don't blame the Polish, please! @AstroTheoretical_Physics' story was very nice to read and follow, I thoroughly enjoyed it. My bronze goes to @GM-Dimitrios-M. It is always fun reading about these bots.

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VOB96:

I really enjoyed @AstroTheoretical_Physics story and barely noticing time going while reading it. @JugadaBrillante delivered another great CHYOA that kept me hooked until finally solving the mystery. And for third place, I chose @DocSimooo and his very interesting analogies that kept me curious about the next one.

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Gold: @theeldest1 for Should FIDE Abolish the Candidate Master Title?

Silver: @read-23 for Unopposed

Bronze: @KevinChessSmith for Chess Couplets

Received votes: @DocSimooo; @nbrasington

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

In my opinion, Ethan (@theeldest1) deserved the gold more than anyone else – great and interesting spelling; silver: @nbrasington; bronze: @DocSimooo. Special mentions to @KevinChessSmith and @nova-stone.

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PokeGirl93:

@KevinChessSmith's writing is always fun to read. It made an extremely blog sitll readable. @read-23 is also a great writer and once again showed why. Third place could go to many, including Astro, nbrasington, Doc, nova, and others. But I think the one who desrved it better was @theeldest1.

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VOB96:

Plenty of well-written blogs this month! I chose @read-23, @theeldest1, and @KevinChessSmith as the one who represented it better. Honorable mentions to @nova-stone, @WinT0L0ss, @DocSimooo, and @HornetCruise. Honestly, almost anything would be acceptable because in the end, the difference is just what fits more with my taste rather than actually better or worse writing.

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Gold: @MrRiskau99 for Where the Game Slowed in Moonlit Tides

Silver: @King_Red_A for Every Rose Has Its Blood | Forgotten History of the Real Valentine's Day

Bronze: @Charlie_Harold for Checkmates And Chopsticks: A History Of Chess In China

Received votes: @Chesser1492

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

Gold goes to @MrRiskau99 (bro, I don't know how you do those amazing special effects and HTML, but it's just so cool! 👏👏👏); silver goes to King_Red_A, great design and use of HTML; bronze goes to Chesser1492, everything is concise and just right.

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PokeGirl93:

For me, the cleanest and most beautiful editing was by @King_Red_A, who combined good HTML with simplicity. @MrRiskau99 also performed well, but maybe too busy with HTML things. Still, very nice. My third place goes to @Charlie_Harold. Once again, amazing editing by a lot of users.

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VOB96:

Although a bit too overloaded with HTML stuff, I think @MrRiskau99 still deserved gold here, followed very closely by @King_Red_A. My third place goes to @Charlie_Harold for being simple and effective. Actually, very similar to mine, so maybe that's why I liked it. Anyway, I know it is repetitive, but this category is a huge challenge to judge because there are literally around 15 blogs that were very good in this aspect.

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Gold: @King_Red_A

Silver: @Mario_ChessNoob

Bronze: @RikLikesTacos1

Received votes: @Fiamma_la_Fiorentina

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

It's always a joy to see bloggers significantly improve their writing, design, and more. @King_Red_A 🥇, @RikLikesTacos1 🥈, and @Mario_ChessNoob 🥉have all improved their skills recently. That's why they're getting medals.

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PokeGirl93:

@King_Red_A deserves this category. Awesome improvement compared to his previous blogs, which were already good. @Mario_ChessNoob submitted one that was much better than his average. Finally, I feel like our esteemed @Fiamma_la_Fiorentina will soon catch some medals if she polishes her blogs a bit more and keeps learning.

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VOB96:

I start with an honoralbe mention to @Duo-Owl's amazing first blog. Unfortunately, this cannot get a "improvement" award because there is nothing to compare with, but congrats. For me, the best improvement was by @King_Red_A, while @Mario_ChessNoob and @RikLikesTacos1 keep developing their blogs more and more!

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Gold: @Mmm_Goat_Milk for How to Master Spell Chess In One Week

Silver: @nbrasington for Hopeless Romantics: The Rivalry That Sparked Love for Attack

Bronze: @DocSimooo for Ethology and Chess: Two, Yet Not Two and @PolishDavidd for Beyond The Board: Things that boost Your ELO Outside Training

Received votes: N/A

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

I present gold to @DocSimooo – amazing thumbnail! Second place and a silver medal from me goes to @nbrasington! Bronze goes to @Mmm_Goat_Milk. It was a very difficult choice, as there were so many contenders for the medal in this category!

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PokeGirl93:

I really liked the tone that @Mmm_Goat_Milk gave to his thumb. It looked super cool! @nbrasington also did a nice job here, and I agree with Vanessa that @PolishDavidd's work was simple, yet very effective. Honorable mentions to @HornetCruise and @nova-stone.

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VOB96:

The best one was by @Mmm_Goat_Milk with an amazing thumb! In second place, I went with @PolishDavidd's simplicity and good "summary" of the topic. My third goes to @nbrasington, although I also really liked the thumbnails from @WinT0L0ss and @DocSimooo, and well, many others.

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Gold: @KevinChessSmith for Chess Couplets

Silver: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Valentine's Day: This Bishop Knew his F8

Bronze: @HornetCruise for An Unlikely American Chess Hero

Received votes: @theeldest1

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

Gold goes to @KevinChessSmith, very in-depth research and also interesting; silver to JGTOMC – he also did excellent research, simply bravo!; bronze to @theeldest1.

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PokeGirl93:

Due to the Valentine's Day competition, we had plenty of very good researches this month. My gold goes to @KevinChessSmith for having done so many couples. Much more than anyone would. @HornetCruise grabs my silver for digging up a lot about Benko, and finally, @JustGettingThisOffMyChess and his historical research about the story of those bishops.

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VOB96:

The amount of research that @KevinChessSmith put into this blog is commendable. Very good and in-depth. I also enjoyed how many details and curious facts @JustGettingThisOffMyChess brought to his readers. Finally, although less challengin than the first two ones, I chose @HornetCruise as third place for his good work digging more about Pal Benko, with many things I was not aware of.

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Gold: Capturing the ultimate recognition was @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Valentine's Day: This Bishop Knew his F8

Silver: @nova-stone for The Blueprint of Avoidable Success

Bronze: @theeldest1 for Should FIDE Abolish the Candidate Master Title?

Received votes: @Alberthepirate

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Some comments from the judges:

Alina_Bakhtina_24:

This category always gives the judges a headache. And in a way, that's a good thing!! After all, it speaks to the high level of competition and the high quality of the blogs. In this category, I'd give gold to @JustGettingThisOffMyChess, silver to @theeldest1, and bronze to @nova-stone. Thank you all for the great blogs this month! You're all great!

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PokeGirl93:

Ok ok, so many great blogs make this choice very challenging, but I think the deserved winner is @JustGettingThisOffMyChess, followed by @Alberthepirate and @nova-stone. I would also like to mention @theeldest1 and @KevinChessSmith as strong contenders who missed my top 3 for very little.

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VOB96:

Wow! What a challenge this was! So many great candidates and I could unfortunately pick only 3. I ended up giving to @JustGettingThisOffMyChess, with @nova-stone and @theeldest1 completing my podium. Three astonishing blogs, but also so many others that could easily be here or could have, without any exaggeration, taken gold in other months. Great job, everyone!

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This is it! Congratulations to all the award winners, all the podium finishers, and everyone who took part! Remember: the March competition has already opened, and we welcome your best blog as you try again to claim a spot on one or more podiums!

We'll see you soon with the March 2026 winners!

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MONTH SUMMARY