2004 Chess Journalists of America /
Fred Cramer Awards Committee for Excellence in Chess Journalism
Joint Announcement

The Chess Journalists of America and the Cramer Awards Committee are pleased to announce the results from the 2004 awards for chess journalism. The two organizations continue their partnership for recognizing deserving chess journalists.

The most distinctive award is Chess Journalist of the Year, won by longtime author and Chess Life columnist, GM Andrew Soltis. This category is decided by a vote of the CJA membership and is endorsed by the Cramer Committee.

The other Cramer categories winners, decided at their July meeting in New York City, are Best Book: Pal Benko: My Life, Games, and Compositions by GM Pal Benko and IM Jeremy Silman; Best Chess Column, Any Media: "Chess" by Jack Peters in the Los Angeles Times; and Best State Magazine: Georgia Chess, Daniel Lucas, Editor. All of these individuals will be awarded a CJA certificate and a marble obelisk, funded this year by GM Arnold Denker's generous donation.

A number of new categories were added this year, most of them in recognition of the explosion of web-based chess journalism and the advantage web journalists have over print journalists (specifically, not being constrained by length). A new category that proved especially popular was the catchall Category 40, Best General Chess Article, added to replace the confusing Best Chess Promotion category that seemed to receive all entries not fitting neatly into one of the other categories.

A Lifetime Achievement award was also added this year. CJA members were able to nominate and vote. A tie occurred this first year between New York Times and Chess Life columnist GM Robert Byrne and former CJA President and current editor of American Postal Chess Tournaments News Bulletin Helen Warren.

Another exciting development recognizing long-time chess journalists has been announced by Don Schultz of the Cramer Awards Committee: the formation of a Gallery of Distinguished Chess Journalists. The names will be displayed on a large plaque that will be updated annually as new names are added. The intent is to have the plaque on display at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. If funding is available, duplicate plaques will be produced and placed on display at additional sites in the USA. The initial journalists honored are: Hermann Helms, Burt Hochberg, Frank Brady, GM Larry Evans, Israel Albert Horowitz and Harold Dondis.

Congratulations to all of this year's hard-working journalists. For links to the Internet winners and all Internet nominees, please see www.chessjournalism.org, and for more information on the Cramer Awards, please see www.chessdon.com.

Respectfully submitted,
Daniel Lucas
Chief Judge, President, CJA

Original CJA Awards Program Announcement