2023 CJA Award Entries
Click below to see the 2023 individual entries for each category and each award.
Chess Journalist of The Year
Best Story of The Year
Best Column of the Year
Best Book of The Year - Overall
• Dewain Barbar & Ralph Bowman – “Humor in Chess III.“
• Frederik Ekman – “Jetan: The Martian Chess of Edgar Rice Burroughs.“
• Frank Hoffmeister – “Chess Theory From Stamma to Steinitz, 1735–1894.“
• Alexey Root – “United States Women’s Chess Champions, 1937–2020.“
• Scott Varagona – “Kings of my Home State.“
Best Book of The Year - Other
• Frederik Ekman – “Jetan: The Martian Chess of Edgar Rice Burroughs.“
• Frank Hoffmeister – “Chess Theory From Stamma to Steinitz, 1735–1894.“
• Alexey Root – “United States Women’s Chess Champions, 1937–2020.“
Best Book of The Year - Instructional
• Vinay Bhat – “How I Became a Chess Grandmaster.“
Best Book of the Year - Self Published
• Dewain Barbar & Ralph Bowman – “Humor in Chess III.“
• Scott Varagona – “Kings of my Home State.“
Best Photojournalism Article
Best Art
• Laurel Aronian – “Chess Circle.“
• Laurel Aronian – “Mosaic Chess Board.“
• Laurel Aronian – “Chess Queen.“
• Jim Hollingsworth – “The 8th Rank.” (originally published here.)
Best Cartoon
Best Single Chess Photo
• Patrick Tejeda – “Caissa’s Best Friend.” (originally posted here, sponsored by the Texas Chess Association.)
• Patrick Tejeda – “Capitulation.“
• Patrick Tejeda – “Pawn Quixote.“
• Patrick Tejeda – “Seahorses.“
Best Single Chess Magazine Cover
Best Regular Newspaper Column
Best Feature Article
• David Emerling – “The Fried Liver Attack.“
Best Tournament Report - State/Local
Best Review
Best Humorous Contribution
Best Overall Magazine
Best Interview
Best Club Newsletter
• Memphis Chess Club – “Chess Advocate (Volume 7 No. 1, Volume 7 No. 2, and Volume 7 No. 3.)”
Best Analysis
Best Personal Narrative
Best Single Article of Local Interest
Best Tournament Report - National/International
Best Instructive Lesson
• David Emerling – “Bishop vs Knight.“
• Sid Pickard – “The Troitzky Line.“
Best Historical Article
Best Interview
• James Eade – “Episode 65 of The Chess Files – The Answers are Out There.“
• Adam Whitaker – “FM John Curtis Interview – Chess Shorts Ep. 2.“
• Davis Zong – “Interview with GM Awonder Liang.“
• Davis Zong – “Interview with GM Darwin Yang.“
Best Feature Article
• Sid Pickard – “The Troitzky Line.“
• Paul Whitehead – “Chess at the Top.“
Best Podcast
• Kevin Scull – “Chess Journeys: Tales of Adult Improvement.“
Best Single Podcast Episode
Best Tournament Report – National/International
Best Tournament Report - State/Local
Best Club Newsletter
• Memphis Chess Club – “Chess Advocate (Volume 7 Number 1 and Volume 7 Number 2.)”
Best Instructive Lesson
• David Emerling – “Bishop vs Knight.“
• Dan Heisman – “Improve Your Chess with Concrete Analysis.“
• Dan Heisman – “Chess – a Thought Process Overview.“
• Dane Mattson – “Learn From Morphy with NM Dane Mattson – Chess Shorts Ep. 5.“
• Sid Pickard – “The Troitzky Line.“
Best Analysis
• Miguel Ararat – “Games From Recent Events.“
• Robert Irons – “Check is in the Mail: October 2022.“
• Alex King – “Annotation Time.“
Best Humorous Contribution
Best Historical Article
• Robert Irons – “Check is in the Mail: RIP FM Alex E. Dunne.“
• Sid Pickard – “The Troitzky Line.“
Best Personal Narrative
• David Emerling – “Blind Spot.“
• Davis Zong – “Returning to Chess in the Schools.“
Best Overall Chess Website
• Jim Eade – Eade Foundation.
Best Overall Website – Small Organization (groups of less than 500)
• Caleb Brown (webmaster) – Innovative Chess Solutions (sponsored by the Texas Chess Association).
• Jim Eade – Eade Foundation.
Best Blog
Best Educational Lesson
• Dan Heisman – “Improve Your Chess with Concrete Analysis.“
• Dan Heisman – “Chess – a Thought Process Overview.“
Best Online Review
• Miguel Ararat – “Book Reviews.“
Best Non-Instructive Chess Video
• Adam Whitaker – “Chess Shorts ep 1 – Elo Ratings and Chess Titles Explained.“
Best Twitter Feed
• Dan Heisman – “NM Dan Heisman.“
Best Twitch Channel
Best Instagram Feed
• Patrick Tejeda – “JPStevensChessClub.“
Best Documentary
• Adam Whitaker – “Chess Legacy Paul Morphy American Champion.“
• John Paul Stevens (executive producer) – “Knocking the King Down.“
Best Tournament/Match Coverage (This may be a series of videos)
Best Coverage by Mainstream Publication (Free entry!)
Best Print Article by a Junior
• Laurel Aronian – “Big Fun at the K-12 Grade Championships!“
• Laurel Aronian – “Fabi’s First Nationals.“
• Laurel Aronian – “Judit Polgar vs the World.“
• Laurel Aronian – “My Star-Spangled Haring.“
• Davis Zong – “Sharing Chess One Story at a Time.“
Best Online Article by a Junior
• Davis Zong – “USATE 2023 – Two Teams At Top.“
Best Personal Narrative by a Junior
• Laurel Aronian – “It’s Not Over.“
• Laurel Aronian – “The World Grand Chess Tour, St. Louis Rapid & Blitz 2022 ~ ‘The Sinquefield Sacrifice.’”
• Davis Zong – “Returning to Chess in the Schools.“
• Davis Zong – “Sharing Chess One Story at a Time.“
Special Achievement Award Entries
Best State Championship Report
Best Scholastic Coverage in State (may be multiple articles)
Best Overall State Website
• Chris Wood (webmaster) – Texas Chess (sponsored by the Texas Chess Association).
Best State Magazine/Newsletter – Print
• Jeff French (editor) – Texas Knights (the official publication of the Texas Chess Association), issues Jan-Feb 2023 and Mar-Apr 2023.