Anand wins Chess Oscar for third time

--- NEW DELHI

World No. 2 Viswanathan Anand has for the third time won the Chess Oscar, the game's most prestigious annual award.

Grandmaster Anand will receive the award in Moscow in June, said a statement from NIIT (a computer training institute), of which he is a brand ambassador.

"I am absolutely elated to be voted the Best Player for 2003," said Anand from his home in Spain, as he prepared to leave to play professional chess league matches in Germany and France this month.

The results of the worldwide poll, involving leading chess writers, critics and journalists from over 50 countries, put Anand at 4,150 points ahead of Russian Grandmaster Peter Svidler by 1,575 points --- one of the biggest margins in recent times.

Russia's Vladimir Kramnik was third with 2,518 points. Present world No. 1 Garry Kasparov, another Russian, finished way behind at the fourth position (2,262) --- the first time he has finished outside top three.

Peter Leko of Hungary was fifth with 1,867 points.

Anand, who has earlier won the Chess Oscar in 1997 and 1998, is only the second non-Russian after Bobby Fischer (1970, 71, and 72) to win the award and both now share the record of three Oscars each.

"This is my third Oscar in seven years. Being the only non-Russian apart from Bobby Fischer to have ever won the Chess Oscars is something I am truly proud of. In 2003, I felt I performed the best and the Oscar is a satisfying reward for it," said Anand.

"Winning the Chess Oscars ensures your place among the legends for the next generation. I think with this third win, my place among them is well secured," he added.

NIIT chairman Rajendra S. Pawar lauded the Chennai-born player. "He is truly one of India's greatest sportspersons, and a perfect sporting ambassador for the country," he said. "NIIT is proud to be associated with a sportsman like Vishy Anand."

The Chess Oscars were founded in 1967 by Jorge Puig and the first winner was the Danish Grandmaster, Bent Larssen.

The awards continued uninterrupted till 1988, when its founder died. Then in 1995, the respected Russian chess magazine, '64' took over the responsibility.

In the nine years since 1995, Anand has won it three times, Kasparov five times and Kramnik once.

A total of 358 votes were polled from within the most respected writers in the chess community, from over 50 countries, including Russia, Germany, Spain, France, India and China.

As many as 232 of the voters gave Anand the top spot, making it 64.08 percent for him. The nearest to Anand in terms of first places was Kasparov, who polled 38 first places and Peter Svidler with 35 first places.

An additional 61 experts gave Anand the second place, making it a total of more than 91 percent, placing him either first or second.

According to the voting method, each voter has to rank 10 top players of the world and the first in each list gets 13 points, second 11, third nine and so on.

In 2003, Anand played two major classical events, winning the Corus Grandmasters event in Wijk Aan Zee and finishing second in Sparkassen at Dortmund.

In blind and rapid, he became the first player to win the Melody Amber outright in all three categories --- blind, rapid and overall --- and he also won the World Rapid Chess Championships in Cape d'Agde.

He won the Chess Classic of Mainz title for the fourth time in succession and then capped a wonderful year winning the Corsica Masters in Bastia for the fourth time.

This year, Anand has already won the Corus Championships in Wijk Aan Zee, finished third in Melody Amber, where he won the Rapid title.

He is due to play in Dortmund, Mainz and the Chess Olympiad besides in some other events.