“Triple Exclam” wins joint honor for “Best Author”

Chess Club Live, a large social media organization announced their awards for 2017 via Twitter. There were various categories and followers were asked to vote in several categories. The vote was conducted via Twitter poll and there was a limited window of time. In a year when an number of interesting books have been released, it was an honor for a publication from The Chess Drum to be included. “Triple Exclam” covered the life of IM Emory Tate, an enigmatic and exciting figure in the chess world. The project was well-received and a paperback version is soon to be released.

The following books were nominated:

Jan Timman, “Timmans Titans” (New in Chess)
Viktor Moskalenko, “Training with Moska” (New in Chess)
Carsten Hansen, “Closed Sicilian: Move by Move (Everyman Chess)
Daaim Shabazz, “Triple Exclam!!! The Life and Games of Emory Tate, Chess Warrior” (The Chess Drum)

In the final tally, both Timman and Shabazz got 36% each and were declared co-winners.

The @ChessClubLive Chess Awards 2018. Chess Author of the Year is shared between Jan Timman, editor of @NewInChess for Timman's Titan, and Daaim Shabazz of @thechessdrum for Triple Exclam!!! Congrats Jan and Daaim, your books have inspired many. https://t.co/hFyoHCEQUf

— Chess Club Live (@ChessClubLive) December 30, 2017

While is was a small samples of votes from a large chess community, it was interesting to see what the market acceptance is for certain types of books. In addition, the categories and nominees therein exposed us to chess personalities and innovations we may not have known about. It is with some pride that we can have in the fact that chess is continuing to grow. Each of the person nominated for any honor will certainly know that they have made a contribution to moving chess forward.

Voted Awards

Beast of the Year: Viswanathan Anand for 2017 World Rapid and Blitz
Journalist of the Year: Tarjei Svensen