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British Chess Federation

Player of the Year 2005

Michael Adams was awarded the BCF Player of the Year 2005 Award for a record eleventh time on 27th June. The award was presented following the Hydra vs. Michael Adams 'Man vs. Machine' at Wembley Conference Centre. Rupert Jones and Roy Lawrence of the BCF presented the award following the final game of the series. This provided some compensation for a disappointed Mickey Adams following the Hydra demonstration of computer superiority.

Michael Adams was born on 17 November 1971. He is currently ranked seventh in the world with a current rating of 2741. He is Britain’s highest rated player. Crowned British Champion at the age of just 17 in 1989, he also won the Championship again in 1997.

He has an impressive record in leading tournaments – in the FIDE knock-out tournament in 1997 to eliminate challengers to play Anatoly Karpov, he won matches against Giorgadze, Tiviakov, Svidler, Van Wely and Short before losing in the finals to the formidable Anand. In 1999 at Dos Hermanas ‘Mickey’ Adams finished clearly ahead of Kramnik, Anand, Svidler, Karpov, Topalov and Judit Polgar. In the 2004 FIDE World Championship he reached the finals again, playing and eliminating Asabri, Asrian, Hamdouchi, Nakamura, Akopian, and Radjabov. In the finals he lost 3.5-4.5 to current FIDE Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

The players were voted for by BCF Direct Members and Chess Journalists, the top four are:-

1 Michael Adams
2 Danny Gormally
3 Luke McShane
4 = Harriet Hunt & Jonathan Rowson