I don't have a clue, but I could not see the result without making a choice so I just picked a random name.

I thought I could edit the poll and add "Undecided".

It erased the votes. Woops!

Just below the vote button, is a hyperlink for "see results" so the initial problem wasn't, errr, a big deal.

I find all the votes for Iyama Yuta before the vote purge curious, because he hasn't ever won a major international tournament, just one blitz title. How can you claim to be the best, when you don't beat the other candidates on the world stage? That said, I didn't vote because I just dunno.

Just below the vote button, is a hyperlink for "see results" so the initial problem wasn't, errr, a big deal.

I find all the votes for Iyama Yuta before the vote purge curious, because he hasn't ever won a major international tournament, just one blitz title. How can you claim to be the best, when you don't beat the other candidates on the world stage? That said, I didn't vote because I just dunno.

I voted Iyama because, maybe he wasn't the best in the year, but he had a really impressive year. Not because he won against everyone else (which he didn't, in the international scene at least)

Fair enough, just a different interpretation of the question. I took it as who was "strongest." But "most successful" is another way to interpret "best."

I agree with you about all the Iyama votes. His game records look stronger and he gathers more tournament wins(and cash) because the competition in Japan has been proven over and over again to be weaker. However, this is a totally subjective poll; none of us could possibly determine who is actually the strongest.

Nevertheless, I encourage posters to do things like look up domestic results, study some title games, or look at head to head matches and make some educated votes. I thought there would be a clear favorite, the results so far(before I accidentally erased them) weren't what I expected.

How's that for a stake in the ground?

It's a stake in the ground, but I'm not sure it's a correct one. The skill level differences between the top players is very thin. No one will argue right now that there are more high level Chinese players and as a result, they will win more tournaments.

That doesn't specifically mean the best player is not Korean or Japanese though.

Ah, the old human wall theory. Great masses of Chinese go players overwhelming everything in front of them. Strong kids picking up the stones of their fallen, older brethren in a quest to be the last man standing. I suppose that if different Chinese players won the international tourneys, as they did, that would add credence to your argument. I need to consider this one for a while.

Well OP has announced that, per his definition, best player = strongest.

Because China won all but one of the international tournaments in 2013, doesn't that mean the strongest player was likely Chinese?

I'm not saying who is strongest at this very moment, I am just proposing that given the way the question is worded, I don't see how 2013's strongest player wouldn't hail from the country that won virtually all the international contests.

How's that for a stake in the ground?

To play devil's advocate, I would imagine the strongest player would use his strength to earn the most money, and not necessarily worry about which tournaments it came from. Under that assumption, all the votes for Iyama Yuta make sense.