2017 CJA Awards Announcement

It's that time of year again, when the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) announce their annual award categories. For at least the third year running, the list of categories was published in the May Chess Life (CL) and not on the CJA's web site. Last year I posted three times on the CJA Awards...

• 2016-05-10: 2016 CJA Awards Announcement
• 2016-07-07: 2016 CJA Award Entries
• 2016-08-23: 2016 CJA Awards

...and I expect to do the same this year. A comparison of the categories for 2016 and 2017 reveals a few changes...

2016	2017

...mainly under 'News and Features'. The CJA's home page, at chessjournalism.org, lists a number of other significant announcements:-

• 2016-10-10: President's Report • 2016 CJA Annual Meeting – President’s View, 'along with a collection of photos'
• 2017-02-06: New CJA Webmaster Named by President • 'Bethany Carson is webmaster-elect'
• 2017-03-15: Glenn Petersen retires • 'Dean of American Chess Editors'

One curiosity I noticed was in the President's Report:-

The [2016] awards were then read and I gave a brief comment about each category. The lengthiest of these dealt with the award for Best Tournament Report, which had a record 15 entries. There were questions about whether the voting would work for such a large category and I discussed having checked with one of our judges, who is a mathematician and who assured me that the scoring for such a large category would work fine.

That category, 'Best Tournament Report', is missing from the list of 2017 categories. Considering that the main purpose of the awards is to generate revenue for the CJA -- '$15 for the first entry (this includes membership or renewal to CJA) and an $8 fee for each subsequent entry' -- why eliminate the most successful income producer? Whatever the reason, I'm looking forward to the 2017 award entries.

While I'm on the subject of awards, the May 2017 CL also brought the news that 'GM Andy Soltis is the 2017 Chess Educator of the Year'. Soltis has won numerous CJA awards in the past.