FIDE Caissa Award

An initiative of GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, the award has been approved by the FIDE Presidential Board and voting for the best female player of 2009 is now open. Nominations end "before" February 20, 2010 (I guess that means the deadline is sometime on February 19th). Here are the regulations from GM Kosteniuk's blog: The women players (rated > 2300) can nominate themselves by sending an application, or any women chess players rated above 2400 on January 1, 2010 can send their top 3 nominations for best women chess players of the year 2009. The complete regulations can be found below. So I ask all the players who are eligible to send their votes to take active part in this voting, as well as the players who think they deserve this award for the 2009 year do not hesitate to send their applications. I would like to have as many applications as possible, I am sure there is a very deserving lady out there deserving this nomination and prize! FIDE CAISSA AWARD The CAISSA AWARD will be awarded annually, every year in the Spring to the best female player of the preceding year. The voting will consist of 2 stages. The first phase: Any women chess player, rated above 2300 ELO, who played more than 10 rated games in the previous year (for example 2009), can apply to get this award, by sending her application to alexandra@kosteniuk.com with cc to: "WOM Fierro Martha" before February 20, 2010. She should indicate her best results of the previous year (for example 2009) and number of rated games and exact results of each tournament played. Alternatively, any woman chess player rated above 2400 ELO on January 1, 2010, can nominate up to 3 candidates for this award, sending an application that will include the best results of the year for the nominated players to alexandra@kosteniuk.com with cc to: "WOM Fierro Martha" before February 20 of the voting year. The second phase: Out of the valid received applications, candidates shall be proposed by the members of the FIDE commission for women’s chess (WOM) and the Commission for World Championships and Olympiads (WCO) based on a voting system (each member of the WOM and WCO can suggest up to three candidates, with the 1st place getting 5 points, 2nd place getting 3 points and the third place getting 1 point, by email to alexandra@kosteniuk.com with cc to: "WOM Fierro Martha" ) . The winner will be the player who gets the greatest number of points. The co-chairmen will count the number of points for each candidate and will propose the winner to the PB before the 2nd quarter Presidential Board of each year. The PB shall review the results, decide in case of a tie, and after the result is known, the winner of the Caissa award is to be notified and announced officially by FIDE. The decision of the PB will be final. The winner will be awarded with the FIDE CAISSA AWARD (2010) and thus named the best female player of the year (2009). Prizes: Grand Prize: 1,000 euros and a statuette. (The prize comes out of the FIDE Commission on Women's Chess) Winners may receive additional prizes if sponsors come forward. Winners must sign an affidavit and license and will be responsible for paying any taxes they may owe on the prize. Check out Sir William Jones' poem, Caissa, at Goddesschess.