# Chess Oscar

Chess Oscar was an international award given annually to the best chess player. The winner was selected by votes that were 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. The prize was created and awarded in 1967 by Spanish journalist Jorge Puig, and the International Association of Chess Press [ru] (AIPE). 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 until 2014.
The Oscar for the best women chess player of the year was established in 1982.

## 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.
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.

## Winners

    YearPlayerCountry 1967Bent Larsen Denmark 1968Boris Spassky Soviet Union 1969Boris Spassky Soviet Union 1970Bobby Fischer United States 1971Bobby Fischer United States 1972Bobby Fischer United States 1973Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1974Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1975Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1976Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1977Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1978Viktor Korchnoi Switzerland 1979Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1980Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1981Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1982Garry Kasparov Soviet Union 1983Garry Kasparov Soviet Union 1984Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union 1985Garry Kasparov Soviet Union 1986Garry Kasparov Soviet Union 1987Garry Kasparov Soviet Union 1988Garry Kasparov Soviet Union 1989–94no awards 1995Garry Kasparov Russia 1996Garry Kasparov Russia 1997Viswanathan Anand India 1998Viswanathan Anand India 1999Garry Kasparov Russia 2000Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2001Garry Kasparov Russia 2002Garry Kasparov Russia 2003Viswanathan Anand India 2004Viswanathan Anand India 2005Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2006Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2007Viswanathan Anand India 2008Viswanathan Anand India 2009Magnus Carlsen Norway 2010Magnus Carlsen Norway 2011Magnus Carlsen Norway 2012Magnus Carlsen Norway 2013Magnus Carlsen Norway

### Women

    YearPlayerCountry 1982Nona Gaprindashvili Soviet Union 1983Pia Cramling Sweden 1984Maya Chiburdanidze Soviet Union 1985Maya Chiburdanidze Soviet Union 1986Maya Chiburdanidze Soviet Union 1987Maya Chiburdanidze Soviet Union 1988Judit Polgár Hungary 1995 Judit Polgár  Hungary 1996 Judit Polgár  Hungary 2000 Judit Polgár  Hungary 2001 Judit Polgár  Hungary 2002 Judit Polgár  Hungary

## By person

    PlayerCountryWins Garry Kasparov Soviet Union, later Russia11 Anatoly Karpov Soviet Union9 Viswanathan Anand India6 Magnus Carlsen Norway5 Bobby Fischer United States3 Boris Spassky Soviet Union2 Vladimir Kramnik Russia2 Bent Larsen Denmark1 Viktor Korchnoi Switzerland1 Veselin Topalov Bulgaria1

## By nation

    CountryWins  Soviet Union17  Russia7  India6  Norway5  United States3  Bulgaria1  Denmark1  Switzerland1