International Chess Journalists

Before starting today's post, I should follow up my recent post CJA in Transition, where I mentioned,

Awards: '[Ramon] Hernandez has resigned as chair of the CJA Awards Committee and Chief Awards Judge. [...] Stay tuned to [the CJA] website for additional information on the Annual CJA Award competitions.'

Although there is no further info to be found on the CJA website, the May 2012 Chess Life (CL) had a full page on '2011 Chess Journalism of America Awards' by Joshua Anderson. You need to be a USCF member to access the online version of CL, so I'll copy the most important info here:-

Submissions must be received by June 15, 2012. [...] CJA is online at http://chessjournalism.org; for additional information on the awards or in joining CJA, please contact CJA Awards Committee Chairman Joshua Anderson at [email address removed] or visit www.cjaawards.org. Our CJA President Al Lawrence and I look forward to seeing you -- the CJA members -- at our annual meeting (held concurrently with meetings at the USCF U.S. Open) this Summer 2012.

That cjaawards.org address leads to a page that says only, 'For additional information on the Annual CJA Awards Competition please visit the Chess Journalists of America'. The associated link points back to the CJA website, which, as I mentioned in my previous paragraph, has no further info. The unmistakable message is that the CJA is primarily a sock puppet for the USCF, tasked with recognizing CL contributors.

As far as I can tell without doing a full comparison, the 2011 award categories are the same as last year and can be found on the page CJA Awards. Last year's awards are titled '2011 Awards', the same year as in the title of this year's CL announcement. That, unfortunately, is typical of the CJA. And, yes, the 'Best Chess Blog' category is still last on the list, but at least it's present.

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While I was writing the original 'In Transition' post, I wondered if there are any international groups for chess journalism. I had a hazy recollection of a group active some years ago, but couldn't remember the acronym. A group called the International Association of Chess Journalists (Association Internationale des Journalistes d'Echecs, AIJE) looked promising, but going further required a userid/password and there was no other info to be found. After the AIJE, I found another International Association of Chess Journalists, this time 'AIPE', where the acronym stands for Association Internationale de la Presse Echiquéenne. French spelling can be just as obtuse as English spelling, and some sources, like Chess.com's Chessopedia, give 'Echiqueene' (one 'n'), as in

The Association Internationale de la Presse Echiqueene (AIPE) was the International Association of Chess Press. It was an organization of chess journalists founded in 1967 by Jordi Puig of Barcelona, Spain. AIPE awarded the Chess Oscars from 1967 (first won by Bent Larsen) to 1988 (won by Kasparov for the 7th time in a row) to the outstanding male and female players of the year. AIPE dissolved in 1989. The Chess Oscar was revived in 1995 (won by Kasparov). • AIPE

Note the translation of the French to 'International Association of Chess Press' instead of 'Chess Journalists'. No wonder the group folded in 1989; nobody knew what to call it. Other sources say the AIPE was founded by Jorge Puig, rather than Jordi Puig.

The group is mentioned several times in the indispensable reference Chess Periodicals: An Annotated International Bibliography, 1836-2008 by Gino Di Felice (where the spelling 'Échiquéenne' and the translation 'Chess Journalists' are used).

AIPE Chess News [Association Internationale de la Presse Échiquéenne] (1977–1982) Vol.1, no.1 (1977)–Vol.6, no.22/24 (Dec 10, 1982). Irregular. Editors Kevin O’Connell, later Thorbjorn Rosenlund. Woodford Green (Essex), later Viby. England, later Denmark. 21 cm. Bulletin. General. English. Note Later with title Chess News / AIPE. Later incorporated in International Players Chess News (The). Resumed by? World Chess Review: Official Publication of the International Association of Chess Journalists (AIPE).

International Players Chess News (The) [Players Chess Association] (1983–1985) Vol.4, no.2 (Jan 10, 1983)–Vol.5, no.13 (Dec 26, 1983) [= No.38-63]; [PCN. Theory and Analysis] No.64 (Jan 9, 1984)–no.89 (Jan 7, 1985). Bi-weekly. Los Angeles, CA. USA. 38 cm. Bulletin. General. English. Note Incorporating AIPE Chess News. From vol.4, no.10 [= no.47 (May 16, 1983)] with subtitle “Official Publication of the Committee on Publications of F.I.D.E., the World Chess Organization.” From no.84 (Oct 29, 1984) with subtitle “Games and Events.” Continues Players Chess News (The), with the same numbering. Continued by PCN: International Players Chess News: Theory and Analysis.

World Chess Review : Official Publication of the International Association of Chess Journalists (AIPE) (1988?–?) Fortnightly. Editor Timothy Hanke (in 1988?). Publisher World Chess Review. Cambridge, MA. USA. 28 cm. Bulletin. General. English. Note Supersedes? AIPE Chess News.

It's a coincidence that the alphabetical order of the publications coincides with the chronological order, but so it is.