Player of the Year
Friday, December 31, 2010 at 1:05PM Every year there's a chess "Oscar" given to the person voted as the player of the year by various chess journalists (not including me, so far), but we can draw our own conclusions here. Who would you pick as the player of the year for 2010? The obvious candidates are those atop the Live Top List: Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and maybe Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin. Here's a brief recap of their accomplishments this year:
Anand: Retained the world championship crown, made it back over 2800 and was on the verge of finishing the year as the #1 rated player. He didn't win any tournaments, but he was always in the mix, coming in second in the Arctic Stars (losing to Carlsen in the final match), the Grand Slam Final (behind Kramnik), Pearl Spring (behind Carlsen) and London (behind Carlsen). And did I mention that he retained his world championship title?
Carlsen: He had a poor stretch in late summer/early fall, but otherwise had lots of good results, winning Wijk aan Zee, Amber (tied with Ivanchuk), the King's Tournament, the Arctic Stars, Pearl Spring and London.
Aronian: Many of his successes were a bit under the radar, but he played well enough to join the elite 2800 club. He finished the year strongly, scoring heavily for his teams in the Olympiad and the European Club Cup, tied for first in the Tal Memorial (with Karjakin and Mamedyarov) and won the World Blitz Championship.
Kramnik: It was a year with successes and a lot of almosts for the former world champion. Among his best results were a narrow second in Wijk aan Zee, third in Amber, a tie for first in the President's Cup (with Mamedyarov and Kamsky), a win in the Grand Slam Final and a botched ending away from winning London. A good year, especially given his tinkering with his style, but not an Oscar-winner.
Karjakin: The youngster gained a lot of points this year, and has emerged as a real threat to the world's elite under the tutelage of Kasparov's former second Yuri Dokhoian. Among his best results: an 8-2 score in the Russian Team Championship, victory in the ACP Rapid Championship, first place in the Karpov Poikovsky tournament, third in the Rapid World Championship, an 8-2 score in the Olympiad, a tie for first in the Tal Memorial (with Aronian and Mamedyarov), and a tie for first in the Russian Championship (but second after the playoff with Nepomniachtchi).
I'd be interested to find out who had the best TPR of the year, but I suspect it's Karjakin. Of these five, it seems that the most natural candidates for the player of the year are Karjakin and Carlsen for their overall results and Anand for retaining the title. Anand's other results were good but not otherwise enough to win. Carlsen had the best tournament results, and Karjakin's performances were a combination of tournament and team successes.
And the player of the year, according to you, is...?
Reader Comments (11)
Magnus Carlsen without doubt.
Even excluding all the tournament wins, any player that can moonlight as a fashion model and "bring Chess to the masses" in such a way deserves to win the Chess Oscar.
Otherwise, give it to Luke Mcshane, for his performance in London :)
I won't name THE (my) player of the year, but add a few names going just a bit further down on the rating lists (live and official Jan 2011, obviously the same as of today), four points to be precise:
Topalov - not a very likely candidate because (despite winning Linares) 2011 was a rather bad year for him
Grischuk - didn't have excellent results (other than Linares) but no bad ones either and almost reached the top5
Mamedyarov - showed at the Tal Memorial that he cannot just pick up Elo by beating weaker players, but also compete with the world top.
To make it a top10 I could add the next ones in line, Ivanchuk and Nakamura, but I think consideration should also be given to some rising stars, e.g. Le Quang Liem, Giri and Nepomniachtchi.
If other things than results and Elo matter, I would give minus points to
- Carlsen for dropping out of the candidates event
- Topalov for his interviews around the WCh match against Anand
- Mamedyarov for his suspicious loss against Radjabov in the Astrakhan GP, securing a spot in the candidates event for both of them
And maybe a plus to Kramnik for his interviews (e.g. the one you mention today) and game demonstrations, always a pleasure to watch.
It has to be Anand. Winning the world championship and temporarily regaining his #1 live rating while being significantly older than all the other candidates you picked out has to count for something. Carlsen may have won more tournaments, but he won the Oscar last year with a much more impressive record.
I have to go with Anand. Retaining the World Championship is a monumental feat, more impressive than winning a series of top tournaments. The match was interesting, although there were many terrible mistakes, it was hard fought and Anand had to cope with Topalov's super computer preparation. Even if the computer didn't help that much it must have been an intimidating presence.
I'd say Aronian. He's quietly but solidly cemented himself into the super-elite although there were a few blips.
I think a good candidate for the Oscar in my eye is the young Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi; he won the European Individual in Croatia (a very tough tournament indeed) and lately the Russia Super-finals by defeating Karjakin in the tie-breaks as you know. Plus, he won the Bronze medal in the Chess Olympiads thanks to his superb performance at the top board of the Russia 2 team (he could have brought the gold medal to the Russia 1 team if he had played in Svidler's stead).
As I said, Ian is just a good candidate for this award. Other than that, my vote is still for Anand because retaining the crown in Sofia with all that psychological and over the board warfare is matchless; you can't easily find a comparative title against it (I wish Carlsen eventually will come to realize this and regret his decision). He truly deserves the Oscar.
Not Karjakin, his only really impressive result was the shared first in Tal together with Aronian and Mamedyarov. Poikovsky was weak and Karjakin was clear top seed when sharing first with Bologan. Then he was 6-7th in Wijk. In spite of some good team results not in any way comparable to Carlsen's being sole winner in top events like Wijk, Bazna, Nanjing and London.
Anand, period. What can possibly top winning the Championship of the World?
It is plain that nobody has a portfolio of major tournament wins that can match Magnus's tally this year. He obviously demonstrated that his shot to the top of the rating list last year was no fluke -- all the more so because he worked through a period of substandard form. Given the list of most honorable mentions in the article above, surely it must be significant to finish the year as the world number one against this competition. And I have to agree the the prior commentator that Magnus's extra-curricular high-profile activities were good for chess, add significant luster to his achievements over the board, and are an appropriate consideration for the Chess Oscar.
Anand is the only other legitimate contender. In addition to the inherent value of his championship defense, perhaps he also gets bonus points because it seems that, in many quarters of the world elite, stiff-arming Topalov&TeamToilet was viewed as very good for chess for broader reasons. (As if to confirm the fears, Topalov's post-match statements indeed suggest that he would be a suboptimal standard bearer.)
As between Magnus and Vishy, it is a toss up. I honestly can't see how anyone else getting it can be objectively justified. Yes, there have been some terrific annual performances. They just don't stack up to what Magnus or (depending on your perspective) Vishy accomplished.
"Not Karjakin, his only really impressive result was the shared first in Tal together with Aronian and Mamedyarov."
Huh?!?! Tied for first in the Russian championship, and put a massive hurt on the Olympiad.
post by user:yalie on chessgames.com comparing Carlsen's and Anand's year
"Carlsen finished ahead of Anand by a point in Nanjing. Anand finished ahead of Carlsen by a point in Bilbao. Anand and Carlsen tied at London.
Anand was +2 in head to head over Carlsen.
Edge Anand! post match common tourneys.
Carlsen had nice wins in Corus and Bazna. Anand had the WC triumph.
Edge Anand - WC in Sofia!
Carlsen had teh horrid olympiad. Anand had a decent bundesliga.
Edge Anand in team events.
Carlsen won Amber, Arctic Securities, 2nd in World Blitz. Anand only played Arctic Securities and finished 2nd (he scored more points than Carlsen BTW).
Edge Carlsen in non-classical formats."