Kübra just few votes short of Best Athlete of the Year:

      

      

Contest of the year: Neslihan Demir voted as Sportsperson of the Year Kübra at the second place

According to the report of Milliyet, Neslihan Demir was voted as the Sportsperson of the year while Kübra Öztürk was just few votes short of Neslihan Demir and became second in the voting. It is the first time that a chess player was nominated in such a large-scale voting in Turkey.  However, it was such a thrilling race between Under 16 European Champion and the star of the national volleyball team.

Earlier News

The first candidate nominated as candidate for the "Sportsperson of the Year" in the category of Best Athlete of the Year is WFM Kübra Öztürk, the winner of European Championship Under16 in Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia.  She also took the silver medal in Turkey Women's Championship 2007 and shared the fifth place in the World Championship Under 16. Kübra became a celebrity after her success and she was frequently seen on TVs, reported in almost every newspaper in Turkey and even a documentary was prepared for her. She is one of the rising stars of Turkish chess, who is expected to be even more successful in the future.  She is playing for the reigning champions of İş Bankası Turkish Chess League, Beşiktaş JK at the moment.

The second candidate representing chess in under the category of "Sports Manager of the Year" is none other than the President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazıcı. Yazici who has been in office since 2006 is striving to make Turkey a dominant chess country in the world, the member of lisenced players in Turkey has reached 150,000 today, which was 5,000 when he was elected back in 2000. Furthermore, Turkey has become one of the most active countries in organizing international chess tournaments which are acknowledged by the world.

If you want to vote for Kübra and Yazici here is how the procedure that you should follow as also explained in the report in ChessBase web site:

"It would be really nice for a chess player to become “Sportsman of the Year” in Turkey – especially such an endearing young lady. If you want to help achieve this monumental goal you can vote for her on the Milliyet site.

Milliyet, one of the most highly circulated newspapers in Turkey has nominated two candidates from chess to its traditional Sportsmen of the Year awards.  The voting proceeds from the Internet and the winners of the awards of five different categories are going to be announced at a special ceremony.Kübra is now at the second place right behind the star of the National Volleyball Team Neslihan Demir and there is a close race between the two reported by Milliyet as a contest that has never been seen for a long time. You can see the most recent report about it in Turkish published on December 26,2006 in Milliyet, here.

TCF President Ali Nihat Yazıcı is at the third place behind after Turgay Demirel(Basketball Federation) and Özhan Canaydın (Galatasaray SK).

             

                                           

"Stuffing" is an ugly word – let us call it general support for the noble game of chess. To vote for Kübra and Ali Nihat go to the Milliyet.com.tr web site or click on the logo above.  Then click on the cast-a-vote link on the left side of the page as shown on the picture near the logo above. In the popup that appears you should enter your name, surname, age and email address. Select Kübra Öztürk as "Yilin sporcusu" and, if you wish, Ali Nihat Yazıcı as "Yilin spor adami", whatever that is. Click Gönder to "submit" the vote. Here is an example below:

 Note that you will only be able to gönder a vote once – the site appears to store this in a cookie to prevent multiple submissions."