Chess Oscar

Chess Oscar was an international award given annually to the best chess player. The winner was selected by votes that are cast by chess journalists from across the world. The traditional voting procedure was to request hundreds of chess journalists from many countries to submit a list of the ten best players of the year. The voters were journalists who knew the game and followed it closely, and so the honor was highly prized. The award itself took the form of a bronze statuette representing a man in a boat.^[1] The prize was created and awarded in 1967 by Spanish journalist Jorge Puig, and the International Association of Chess Press (AIP). The awards were given from 1967 until 1988. Then, after a pause, they resumed in 1995, and were then organized by the Russian chess magazine 64.^[2][3]

64 ceased publication in 2014, and the awards have not been made since.

Statuette

The statuette's final form, a man in a boat, was carved by the sculptor Alexander Smirnov. It represented a figure known as "The Fascinated Wanderer", which refers to a short story written in 1873 by 19th-century Russian author Nikolai Leskov. In this story, the title character, Ivan Flyagin, is a horse trainer and a brute of a man. From his birth his mother has promised that Ivan's life would be devoted to the church. Ivan spends many years avoiding this fate, but eventually gives in and becomes a monk, not for spiritual reasons, but due to a poverty of opportunity.^[4][5]

The Chess Oscar statuette originally took the form of "The Lady of the Umbrella", a figure based on a statue in Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona, Spain.^[6][7][8]

Winners

Year	Player	Country
1967	Larsen, BentBent Larsen	Denmark
1968	Spassky, BorisBoris Spassky	Soviet Union
1969	Spassky, BorisBoris Spassky	Soviet Union
1970	Fischer, BobbyBobby Fischer	United States
1971	Fischer, BobbyBobby Fischer	United States
1972	Fischer, BobbyBobby Fischer	United States
1973	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1974	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1975	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1976	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1977	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1978	Korchnoi, ViktorViktor Korchnoi	Switzerland
1979	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1980	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1981	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1982	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union
1983	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union
1984	Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union
1985	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union
1986	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union
1987	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union
1988	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union
1989–94	no awards
1995	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Russia
1996	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Russia
1997	Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand	India
1998	Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand	India
1999	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Russia
2000	Kramnik, VladimirVladimir Kramnik	Russia
2001	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Russia
2002	Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov[9]	Russia
2003	Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand[10][11]	India
2004	Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand	India
2005	Topalov, VeselinVeselin Topalov[12]	Bulgaria
2006	Kramnik, VladimirVladimir Kramnik[13]	Russia
2007	Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand[14]	India
2008	Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand[15]	India
2009	Carlsen, MagnusMagnus Carlsen[16]	Norway
2010	Carlsen, MagnusMagnus Carlsen[17]	Norway
2011	Carlsen, MagnusMagnus Carlsen[18]	Norway
2012	Carlsen, MagnusMagnus Carlsen[19]	Norway
2013	Carlsen, MagnusMagnus Carlsen[20]	Norway

By person

Player	Country	Wins
Kasparov, GarryGarry Kasparov	Soviet Union, later  Russia	11
Karpov, AnatolyAnatoly Karpov	Soviet Union	9
Anand, ViswanathanViswanathan Anand	India	6
Carlsen, MagnusMagnus Carlsen	Norway	5
Fischer, BobbyBobby Fischer	United States	3
Spassky, BorisBoris Spassky	Soviet Union	2
Kramnik, VladimirVladimir Kramnik	Russia	2
Larsen, BentBent Larsen	Denmark	1
Korchnoi, ViktorViktor Korchnoi	Switzerland	1
Topalov, VeselinVeselin Topalov	Bulgaria	1

By nation

Country	Wins
Soviet Union	17
Russia	7
India	6
Norway	5
United States	3
Bulgaria	1
Denmark	1
Switzerland	1

References