Hello everyone! Welcome to the latest installment of The Blogger Awards v2.0, covering entries in January 2025! 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.

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Gold: @O-O for How does Chess affect Lebron James Legacy?
Silver: @DocSimooo for Why Mozart is the Magnus Carlsen of music
Bronze: @PierreLuc for 3 life lessons I've learned while losing at chess

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

I liked the idea of @DocSimooo's title of playing with the famous phrase and writing it "reversed". @PierreLuc also had a cool title that caught my eye as I scrolled down the 'All Blogs' page. The third place for me was a tie between @JugadaBrillante and @GrizwoldZed, so I gave preference to the better blog, but would like to register this honorable mention.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

@O-O’s title wins me over with two key points. First, its name drops a recognizable figure. Second, it plays into a popular meme. Together these two points make for a pretty effective title. @DavidGaming08's title on the other hand is quite standard, and well written. It brings in the clicks, which is why I believe that middle of the pack is fair here. It’s well done, but it’s not interesting to the point of reaching 1st. On the other hand, @JGTOMC’s blog is very creative, but it suffers from having too much to say.

KevinSmithIdiot:

A number of great titles. I put @O-O at the top of my podium because he picked a great meme phrase that dragged me in despite my best intentions given that I'm not a fan of how the world relates to any given individual. @DocSimoo's title naturally drew my eye because I liked the song "Amadeus" and was curious what parallels would be drawn between these two GOATs of their time and expertise, so he earned my silver nod. I had to choose among five contenders I felt deserved consideration for the bronze. I finally selected @PierreLuc as my bronze candidate because I felt it related to the broadest audience. Still, a shout out from me to @PokeGirl93, JGTOMC, @MaybeEvery and @JugadaBrillante.

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Gold: @PokeGirl93 for Judo Talent vs. Chess Talent. A Case Study With Children
Silver: @O-O for How does Chess affect Lebron James Legacy?
Bronze: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

I really like topics that involve chess and another sport or some aspect of life, so Leticia (@PokeGirl93's real name) and @StageKing are the ones I like better. My bronze medal goes to @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for the creativity of using a well-known concept and relating it to chess.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

Great topic picking by @O-O. There are very few things as attractive to readers as bringing up a well-known figure and trying to tie them to the community in some way. Next, we have @PokeGirl93 who gave the readers unique insight into her experiences as both a judo instructor and a chess teacher. I found this intriguing and felt it appropriate to award second place for the uniqueness of the topic. I think @DocSimoo has earned a place on the podium of this specific category. He names two easily recognizable names and claims to have found some similarities between the two. Of course, readers will be interested.

KevinSmithIdiot:

Tough, tough decisions. Many people are crowded around my podium candidates. @PokeGirl93 earned my easy nomination for gold because I've been involved with chess and martial arts for decades and she included statistical and visual analyses which was my profession for decades. After that it was a question of what resonated most and that led to razor-thin margins that led me to vote for @PierreLuc for silver and @JGTOMC for bronze with a half-dozen close competitors just behind those two.

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Gold: @MaybeEvery for the 1500 bots: conversations with wendy, antonio, and pierre
Silver: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth
Bronze: @PierreLuc for 3 life lessons I've learned while losing at chess

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

I loved @O-O's way of relating chess and Lebron's legacy. It was fun for me to read it. @PierreLuc also has a subtle humor in the text that kept me amused most of the time. @MaybeEvery's blog is simple but nice and left me feeling good after reading it. Some pretty good work in this category this time!⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

I argue that @JGTOMC’s comedy starts from the thumbnail, where he gives the sense that the blog will be far darker than it turns out to be. From there, he uses lighthearted writing to take the readers through a quirky history of chess. @MaybeEvery starts us off by using exaggeration to portray himself as either more capable than he is or more arrogant than he is. Either way, we start off his blog knowing that he’s going in with a lot of confidence. He then proceeds to tell us a bit about the character of the bots he played, jokingly referencing how their character either aligns with or doesn’t match the way he was ‘treated’ in his games against them. All without capitalizing a single word. If we had a “rookie to watch” award, I might have to nominate him for it. Next up we have @PierreLuc. He uses puns, references and witty remarks to create a minefield of jokes. Admittedly, not every joke will strike home, but the ones that did got a chuckle out of me.

KevinSmithIdiot:

One of the historically underserviced categories had a huge uptick that tickled my fancy! Just finishing off the podium for me were @O-O and @PokeGirl93 but I really liked what they wrote. @PierreLuc probably deserved better than the bronze nomination I sent his way, but I found @JGTOMC and @MaybeEvery best jarred my funny bone. There can be only one, so I finally voted for @MaybeEvery at the top of the podium and @JGTOMC was relegated to a sparkling silver..

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Gold: @MaybeEvery for the 1500 bots: conversations with wendy, antonio, and pierre
Silver: @ToastBread_1 for Counter The Fried Liver Attack!
Bronze: @NoahDeAlwis for The Complete Beginner Guide To The Sicilian (part 1)

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

I liked the human touch that @MaybeEvery brought to his analysis, very well done. @ToastBread_1 also did a nice job, even if the line is rather simple. My bronze goes to @NoahDeAlwis.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

I initially wasn’t too sure about even placing him on this podium, but noticing how barren the competition was and changing my perspective, I realized that @MaybeEvery may have brought something interesting to the table. What it lacks in insight, @MaybeEvery’s analysis makes up for with personality. He uses the analysis as a tool of simulated conversation with the bots, which adds to the comedy. That doesn’t lessen the importance of precision and clarity, which we can find with @NoahdeAlwis and @ghefley’s analysis. Noah does take second place for being more in depth about the moves, but the two fundamentally fill the same niche of explaining the point over expressing their personalities. A niche that I think we all agree is preferred when reading a chess analysis. I just have to give @MaybeEvery their win for the interesting way that they used the feature.

KevinSmithIdiot:

I love sprightly analysis and @MaybeEvery provided that in spades so I put him at the top of my carefully calculated category. @ToastBread_1 provided some analysis but more depth would have been appreciated. Still, definitely good enough to earn my nod for silver. I did not nominate anyone for the bronze because I'm grumpy about analysis...that's what happens when you're 200K words with over 350 diagrams into writing a book on how to analyze chess games.

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Gold: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth
Silver: @PokeGirl93 for Judo Talent vs. Chess Talent. A Case Study With Children and @JugadaBrillante for Theft at Tata Steel 
Bronze: Not awarded as there was a two-way tie for silver.

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

@JugadaBrillante is becoming the king of this category. This type of blog is very pleasant to read. Knowing that the traditional quizzes and escape rooms could get tiring, he has once again innovated with another very good and fun piece. @JustGettingThisOffMyChess kept me wondering what the next layer would be! I also loved the way Leticia presented her ideas and data. Well done!⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

@JGTOMC wins easily here, with good headers, good writing and great image choices. It makes for an easy read. @MaybeEvery uses all the available features he can to characterize the bots and tell a bit of a story. @DavidGaming08 used the familiar list-off template (which I believe was popularized by BuzzFeed, but I may well be wrong) and as usual it’s effective. The read is as easy as ever with some interesting tidbits left for the reader to think about.

KevinSmithIdiot:

Humorously (to me) @JugadaBrillante earned a spot among my podium choices even though I hate quizzes...but I kept coming back until I solved the darned thing. So, hearty applause and my bronze nod. That said, @JGTOMC's blog kept me involved throughout (without annoying me!🤪) but couldn't outscore @PokeGirl93 as she earned my gold medal nod..

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Gold: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth
Silver: @PokeGirl93 for Judo Talent vs. Chess Talent. A Case Study With Children
Bronze: @ghefley for Ideas of Tactics and Material and @DavidGaming08 for 5 Reasons Why 2025 Could Be a Memorable Year in Chess

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

@JustGettingThisOffMyChess and @ghefley are known to be good writers and showed it again with texts that kept my attention without being boring despite the complexity and depth. @PokeGirl93 was a nice surprise in this respect, mixing serious and funny texts very well.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

@JGTOMC uses a light but well written style that is maintained throughout the blog without him seeming to get lost in any particularly strong thoughts. My second pick is @DavidGaming08. Although the list-off format is made for clicks, that doesn’t make it easy to write. David wrote his blog very well and dug up some interesting things to talk about. Lastly, we have @PokeGirl93. Hers was my favorite blog among the posts, and while I ultimately had to give way for better blogs on a category-by-category basis, I do think that her writing stands strong among the tough competition.

KevinSmithIdiot:

The writing level continues to improve across the board, but I felt my three podium selectees separated themselves from their peers. In order, from gold to bronze, I seeded @JGTOMC, @PokeGirl93, and @ghefley..

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Gold: @DavidGaming08 for 5 Reasons Why 2025 Could Be a Memorable Year in Chess
Silver: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth
Bronze: @PokeGirl93 for Judo Talent vs. Chess Talent. A Case Study With Children

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

@DavidGaming08 has almost set a benchmark here. I like standardized things with clear divisions and patterns. @JustGettingThisOffMyChess also did a great job, but some paragraphs were too long, so he came in second. @DocSimooo went a bit overboard with too many pictures at the beginning, but overall the blog is visually very nice.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

I’ve just noticed that we don’t have a best formatting category anymore so this will act as that for me. @PokeGirl93’s formatting/editing was very good. The tables were easy to understand, allowing us a glimpse into how competitiveness and personality in children transfers over between a physical and an intellectual sport. @DavidGaming08 uses quotes, images and headers to naturally break up the text into digestible bites. Where @JGTOMC loses to both @DavidGaming08 and @PokeGirl93 is that he does not separate his text into smaller paragraphs, which become mini-word-walls.

KevinSmithIdiot:

I'll start off my comments but noting some things that would have aided numerous submissions: Table of Contents with links to the sections and section titles that stood out from the text of the body of the post (think bold, think going to 18 or 24 pitch instead of 15). Also, for those using multiple colors for the text...I tried that twice and it doesn't work well for the readers, or for the TBs I asked about it.

@DavidGaming08 won this category going away imo. My vote for silver went to @JGTOMC. @DocSimooo snatched the bronze away from some strong contenders who just finished off my podium

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Gold: @StageKing
Silver: @DocSimooo and @DavidGaming08
Bronze: Not awarded as there was a two-way tie for silver.

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

I decided to open this category! But I chose not to take into consideration bloggers or their blogs that have not competed in the past months, so we keep the criteria only "inside" this contest. @StageKing had already delivered well last time but made it even better now. @DavidGaming08 also improved nicely, although his blogs were never bad. @JugadaBrillante finally got rid of those dots to add spaces, after being advised by a Kiwi Top Blogger whose name I forgot. It looks much cleaner than the past ones!

KevinSmithIdiot:

My gold medal candidate is @DocSimooo who started out clearly competent, then earned nominations in a category or two, to now competing strongly in multiple categories. My silver medal nominee is @StageKing who seems to be on the same path as Doc and I expect him to start racking up medals! I'm putting @DavidGaming08 in as my bronze medal candidate. He started off strong but has found ways to step it up in every contest he entered; it's impressive to find ways to improve after starting out strong.

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Gold: @DocSimooo for Why Mozart is the Magnus Carlsen of music
Silver: @GrizwoldZed for The clock is ticking
Bronze: @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth

Some comments from the judges:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

VOB96:

Some pretty good ones this time! I really liked @DocSimooo's sunglasses on Mozart. The thumbnail is simple but effective. @DavidGaming08 also had one that I was sure would catch my eye as I scrolled down the 'All Blogs' page. My bronze goes to @JugadaBrillante for his beautiful depiction of a classic thief. I must mention that JGTOMC and Felix6812 could easily be on the podium here too.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

@GrizwoldZed brought something fresh, creative and to the thumbnail category. The art was very nice and used a slightly funny (if a bit unrelated) chess meme. @JGTOMC had a well-balanced and interesting thumbnail. The image invokes curiosity and clues the reader in on the existence of a dark secret that only his blog can reveal. Which is why I don’t believe there was a need for most of the title to also be on the thumbnail. The thumbnail had told its story. However, if @JGTOMC had left the text on the thumbnail and deleted it from the long title, I think it might have been fine. @DocSimoo’s thumbnail offers some brighter colors my Top 3 thumbnails. It’s quite appealing and does not require much critique but ultimately loses to JGTOMC’s precision and Grizwold’s creativity. One thing I see as a flaw is the lack of consistent capitalization.

KevinSmithIdiot:

So much AI! Too much text! Postage stamps placed inside a rectangle! What does this thumbnail have to do with the topic? Oh my.

@DocSimooo earns my golden vote for the straightforward thumbnail that visually prepares the reader for the topic. @MaybeEvery got my silver nod because of the thought bubble in the bottom corner but the image is obviously just a copy from Chess.com...something with Sissy Spacek from the movie Carrie located in a chess tournament hall would have been more creative. Finally, @Felix 6812 gets my nod for the bronze by keeping it simple and not submitting a thumbnail that had too much text, too much AI, or didn't seem closely related to the topic.

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Gold: Capturing the ultimate recognition was @JustGettingThisOffMyChess for Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth
Silver: @PokeGirl93 for Judo Talent vs. Chess Talent. A Case Study With Children
Bronze: @DocSimooo for Why Mozart is the Magnus Carlsen of music

Some comments from the judges:

VOB96:

So many great blogs this month! The choice was much harder than in December. For me, @Pokegirl93 is the one who better combined all the aspects I consider important, although I may be biased as I know it was her first time and that impressed me a lot. I know it sounds like a conspiracy against him, but I place @JustGettingThisOffMyChess in second place again. Many could be third, but in the end I chose @DocSimooo because he also did well in many different areas.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Orca:

@JGTOMC manages to barely win over his opponents with a stronger overall. @PokeGirl93 in my opinion had the more consistent blog, but she ultimately did not shine as much as @JGTOMC did in any categories. @DavidGaming08 on the other hand performs almost as well as @JGTOMC on the podium, but I believe that @PokeGirl93's consistency beats him out for second.

KevinSmithIdiot:

I need to be able to hand out more medals is all I want to say. Just missing out on my podium nominations were @PierreLuc, @MaybeEvery, @JugadaBrillante. That said, I felt @JGTOMC earned my nod for gold, @PokeGirl93 merited at least silver, and @DocSimooo was right in there but after much agonizing I slotted him in at bronze. Sigh. I'd just as soon offer three gold medals, but it doesn't work that way.

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This is it! Congratulations to all the award winners, all the podium finishers, and everyone who took part! Remember: the competition for February 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 February 2025 winners!

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MONTH SUMMARY