Wanted to vote for Kramnik - wasn't there, so Macer.
Poll: Who had the best year in chess?
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MSC157 wrote:
Wanted to vote for Kramnik - wasn't there, so Macer.
I considered including Kramnik, but his biggest accomplishment, as I noted in my note on omissions, was staying above 2800 in the ratings. And if you're going to cast your vote based on ratings, then why not vote for the player who was rated higher than him all year?
Anyway, I didn't include him because he didn't have any major tournament victories (and come to think of it, did he have any tournament victories?). Even though he did win the Board 2 gold medal at the Olympiad, I don't think that is comparable t a win in Tata, Dortmund, the Tal Memorial, etc.
But anyway, thanks for voting for me!
Me! I can beat Magnus Carlesen in a 85-board simul while sleeping!
Just kidding, Magnus Carlesen!
I would put the Troll Championship against any other major chess accomplishment. Not just anyone can do that.
SilentKnighte5 wrote:
I would put the Troll Championship against any other major chess accomplishment. Not just anyone can do that.
Well... not just anyone can win the World Chess Champion or Tata Steel either, but I get what you're saying. Thank you for your support!
Also, I just realized how unlucky Caruana has been this past year. He won 1 tournament, and finished second in 7. Granted, some of those second-place finishes were ties with other people, but then again others were ties for first, which he lost by tiebreak.
Donald Trump--he beat Hillary Clinton is the Electoral College Chess Championship despite losing a rook in the opener.
Really, guys? You would think that on a site where people claim to like chess, a topic like this one would be more popular.
Carlsen
The Chessbase poll was a landslide for So, and looking through the comments several commented that So had been clearly better than Carlsen in 2016. Which I do find a bit strange, Carlsen finished well ahead of So in all events both played (like Tata, Bilbao, etc), had a plus against So in both classical and speed chess, and won the title match apart from everything else.
Even if also the Chessbase poll had comments meaning that Kramnik should have had more votes as better than Carlsen in 2016, while he now "only" came fourth, he did play eight games against Carlsen during the year and lost seven while drawing the last after Carlsen messed up a winning position. So to me ranking Kramnik as better than Carlsen in 2016 is difficult, not least since Carlsen won all classical events he played while Kramnik also in 2016 wasn't really close to win any of those he played.
My rank for best player of 2016 would go something like Carlsen-Karjakin-So-MVL-Nepomniachtchi-Caruana.
fabelhaft wrote:
The Chessbase poll was a landslide for So, and looking through the comments several commented that So had been clearly better than Carlsen in 2016. Which I do find a bit strange, Carlsen finished well ahead of So in all events both played (like Tata, Bilbao, etc), had a plus against So in both classical and speed chess, and won the title match apart from everything else.
Even if also the Chessbase poll had comments meaning that Kramnik should have had more votes as better than Carlsen in 2016, while he now "only" came fourth, he did play eight games against Carlsen during the year and lost seven while drawing the last after Carlsen messed up a winning position. So to me ranking Kramnik as better than Carlsen in 2016 is difficult, not least since Carlsen won all classical events he played while Kramnik also in 2016 wasn't really close to win any of those he played.
My rank for best player of 2016 would go something like Carlsen-Karjakin-So-MVL-Nepomniachtchi-Caruana.
Fair points. I do have one minor question: Is that your top 6 rankings for all players in 2016, or just your rankings among the 6 players (other than myself) that I included in the poll?
Also, a question for everybody: when you're evaluating Carlsen's year, do you count his WCC performance as a positive or negative? On the one hand, he won. On the other hand, he won with great difficulty against an opponent that everybody (ok, almost everybody) thought would not pose a serious thread, in the process losing a lot of rating points.
"Is that your top 6 rankings for all players in 2016"
It's more the order in which I would vote for them as player of the year. Caruana is probably the second best player in the world right now, but he didn't have any major achievement coming anywhere close to MVL's Dortmund in 2016. It really was a great and slightly forgotten result:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=87756
"when you're evaluating Carlsen's year, do you count his WCC performance as a positive or negative?"
A positive, after all. He won, and few manage to win several title matches in a row. I think he just missed unusually many wins, and little would have been needed for it to be a very clear victory. My guess he will play better in the next match, but still this was ok in the end.
what is wrong with timing? server problem? my time moves too quickly as opposed to my opponnt's
macer75 wrote:
fabelhaft wrote:
The Chessbase poll was a landslide for So, and looking through the comments several commented that So had been clearly better than Carlsen in 2016. Which I do find a bit strange, Carlsen finished well ahead of So in all events both played (like Tata, Bilbao, etc), had a plus against So in both classical and speed chess, and won the title match apart from everything else.
Even if also the Chessbase poll had comments meaning that Kramnik should have had more votes as better than Carlsen in 2016, while he now "only" came fourth, he did play eight games against Carlsen during the year and lost seven while drawing the last after Carlsen messed up a winning position. So to me ranking Kramnik as better than Carlsen in 2016 is difficult, not least since Carlsen won all classical events he played while Kramnik also in 2016 wasn't really close to win any of those he played.
My rank for best player of 2016 would go something like Carlsen-Karjakin-So-MVL-Nepomniachtchi-Caruana.
Fair points. I do have one minor question: Is that your top 6 rankings for all players in 2016, or just your rankings among the 6 players (other than myself) that I included in the poll?
Also, a question for everybody: when you're evaluating Carlsen's year, do you count his WCC performance as a positive or negative? On the one hand, he won. On the other hand, he won with great difficulty against an opponent that everybody (ok, almost everybody) thought would not pose a serious thread, in the process losing a lot of rating points.
But we all knew he sew what was coming and he fit the camel through the eye of the needle in the end.
Monokroussos of The Chess Mind agrees with Kramnik and Chessbase about So having been better than Carlsen in 2016, but I do wonder about that assessment :-)
To be fair to Chessbase, I see that they have changed what the vote is about this time. It used to be "the best player of the year":
https://en.chessbase.com/post/best-of-2015-best-player
But for 2016 this is no longer the case, now it is about "which player impressed you most" during the year. At the same time as it is said to be about "best of 2016", so it is maybe not totally clear.
Regardless, So isn't such an obvious choice to me, given how far behind Carlsen he has been in the events both played. If Carlsen wasn't the one to pick I would rather go with Karjakin, who won the Candidates and World Blitz Championship and almost the title match as well.
Magnus!
The Muzychuk sisters are getting to be quite formidable. Anna now has a higher FIDE rating than Hou Yifan, and won the women's blitz and rapid championships.
IMPORTANT: Please read the summary below of each player's major accomplishments in the past year before casting your vote!
What a year 2016 has been for chess! We witnessed a World Championship match, the first ever Troll Chess Championship match, and so many exciting tournaments and memorable games! As we look back on this action-packed year, many of us will ask: of all of the great players of 2016, who had the most impressive year? Today, I will kick off the discussion with an informal poll, in which I have chosen as the options 7 players who represent the cream of the crop in terms of their accomplishments in 2016. A brief summary of these accomplishments is available below. Please vote for which of these players you think had the best year, and tell us why in the comments below. Is your pick for the best player of the year not included in the options?* Then feel free to make an argument in the comments for why you think s/he should have been included!
The following is a list of the candidates with their accomplishments, in alphabetical order:
Magnus Carlsen
Defended World Championship against Karjakin (on tiebreak). Won Tata Steel Masters, Altibox Norway Chess, Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour (Leuven), Bilbao Masters, GM Blitz Battle Championship. 2nd in Paris Grand Chess Tour, World Blitz Championship (lost to Karjakin on tiebreak). 3rd in World Rapid Championship (lost to Ivanchuk, Grischuk on tiebreak).
FIDE rating Jan. 2016: 2844, #1 Jan. 2017: 2840 (-4), #1
Fabiano Caruana
Won US Chess Championship. Scored 7/10 in Baku Olympiad as part of title-winning USA team. 2nd in Tata Steel Masters (tied), Candidates’ Tournament, Shamkir Chess (lost to Mamedyarov on tiebreak), Dortmund (tied), Sinquefield Cup (tied), Chess.com Isle of Man (lost to Eljanov on tiebreak), London Chess Classic.
FIDE rating Jan. 2016: 2787, #5 Jan. 2017: 2827 (+40), #2
Sergey Karjakin
Won Candidates’ Tournament, World Blitz Championship (on tiebreak). Lost on tiebreak to Carlsen in World Championship.
FIDE rating Jan. 2016: 2769, #11 Jan. 2017: 2785 (+16), #8
Macer75
Won Troll Chess Championship 7-1 against Computer2-MEDIUM. Had two 3-digit winning streaks (179 and 105) in a span of less than 4 months (Aug. 22 to Dec. 21).
Chess.com blitz rating Jan. 1, 2016: 1424 Jan. 1, 2017: 1757 (+333)
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Won Hainan Danzhou Classic, Tal Memorial. Scored 8/10 in Baku Olympiad as part of 3rd place Russian team.
FIDE rating Jan. 2016: 2704, #39 Jan. 2017: 2767 (+63), #11
Wesley So
Won Sinquefield Cup, London Chess Classic (in the process winning Grand Chess Tour). Scored 8.5/10 in Baku Olympiad, winning Board 3 gold medal as part of title-winning USA team. 2nd in US Chess Championship (tied), Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour (Leuven), Ultimate Blitz Challenge.
FIDE rating Jan. 2016: 2773, #10 Jan. 2017: 2808 (+35), #4
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Won Dortmund, Corsica Masters. Scored 8.5/10 in French League as part of title-winning Clichy team. 2nd in Gibraltar Masters (lost to Nakamura on tiebreak).
FIDE rating Jan. 2016: 2785, #7 Jan. 2017: 2796 (+11), #5
Link to poll:
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=5877f0e4e4b0ca14c586a245
* Note on omissions: In order to be included in the poll, a player must have won at least one championship match (World Championship or Troll Chess Chapionship) or elite classical tournament (multiple top 10 players). This criteria in part accounts for the notable omissions of players who otherwise had good years, such as Kramnik (only player other than Carlsen to stay above 2800 for the entire year), Anand (won several minor events; solid in most events in which he played), Nakamura (won many blitz & rapid events) and Ivanchuk (won World Rapid Championship and several minor events).