Anand to Reunite with The Fascinated Wanderer

The best actors and actresses of Hollywood receive an award each year, at the Oscars. The highest goal scorer at the football world cup, receives the Golden shoe. The best Cricket team receives the ICC Mace each year. In chess, the equivalent award is the Chess Oscar. This is an International award instituted in the year 1967 by Jorge Puig,and the winner was chosen by accredited journalists following the game from across the world. It is traditionally given to the Grandmaster , who, according to the chess aficionados, was the best and most entertaining player that year. The first winner was Bent Larsen in 1967 and the award ceremony was held in Madrid. In 1988 Puig died and the award was not given until 1995. They were reinstituted in the year 1995, by the popular Russian chess magazine - '64'.

The current World Champion, GM Vishwanathan Anand of India, has won the Chess Oscar, 6 times. He is the only non-Russian to have won the award more than 5 times. To put this achievement in perspective, the late Robert.J.Fischer, chess genius from U.S.A, won it three times. The maximum number of chess Oscars have been won by the Chess Master, Garry Kasparov - a record 11 times.

GM Vishwanathan Anand won the Chess Oscar for the year 2008 for his outstanding play while retaining his World Championship title in Bonn. Other contenders for the title included GM Veselin Topalov, who had a strong run last year in Bilbao and Nanjing and who is also the current World No.1. Since the Award couldn't be presented to Anand last year, he will be receiving the award on 7th May during the inaugural ceremony of the President's Cup match between Azerbaijan and the rest of the World.

P.S: The chess Oscar is represented by a statuette also called the Fascinated Wanderer !

Category: Chess , Chess News