The Hindu : Sport / Chess : 2004 Oscar for Anand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

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2004 Oscar for Anand

KOZHIKODE, APRIL 12. India's Viswanathan Anand has won the chess Oscar for 2004. The award, given by the Russian chess magazine `64', is presented to the best player of each year, chosen by chess experts from around the globe. And this is the fourth Oscar for the genial genius from Chennai and the second straight one.

This is in fact the second time that the 35-year-old is winning the most prestigious award in chess in successive years, having done it 1997 and 1998. The latest one is perhaps the most expected of all his four Oscars, as Anand had an incredible year in 2004, winning a title in every single tournament he played.

He received 5205 points from the poll (the points are tabulated according to the top ten places ranked by each voter). He was ranked first by 279 of the 445 experts and he featured in everybody's list (no one else had this honour).

The second-placed Garry Kasparov of Russia, the World No. 1 who recently announced his retirement from competitive chess, could only get 60 first placings and 3664 points, and that would give a fair indication of the way the Indian dominated the 64 squares in 2004.

The third place went to Hungary's Peter Leko with 3485 points.

The Oscar nominees: 1. Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 5205 points, 2. Garry Kasparov (Rus) 3664, 3. Peter Leko (Hungary) 3485, 4. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 3344, 5. Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) 2088, 6. Veselin Topalov (Bul) 1858, 7. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1398, 8. Michael Adams (Eng) 1378, 9. Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 1128, 10. Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 868. — Our Sports Reporter

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