Excellent review !
Review of 2014
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Impressive analysis! Keep up the good work!
Love your work fabelhaft! Springfield > Sinquefield
Yes, it's Sinquefield.
Don't forget Nakamura 
Thank you
MSC157 wrote:
Love your work fabelhaft! Springfield > Sinquefield
I must have watched too much Simpsons :-)
fabelhaft wrote:
Russia was expected to win the Olympiad, but Kramnik on first board, who never had lost a game in an Olympiad, lost to Vallejo and Kasimdzhanov and Russia didn't even medal.
Kramnik lost to Nakamura at the 2012 Olympiad.
(I'm sorry about bumping a somewhat old thread, but I saw it only recently.)
After the discontinuation of the Chess Oscar award it might be more interesting to make a summary of the year rather than just speculate about the probable winner.
To pick a few of the most prominent players, one could start with Anand: 2014 was an incredible year for him. He won the Candidates, undefeated, and also Bilbao and London. Three top tournament wins after going six years without winning a single one was both surprising and well deserved. He once again showed what a great player he is.
Caruana had a very good year, with Springfield Cup standing out as one of the best tournament results ever. There was a long discussion at Chessgames.com, where it was argued that Caruana had the best results of the year and now was the real #1, but that is going too far. In six of the seven events both he and Carlsen played, the latter scored the better result. In Tata Caruana shared 4-6th with So and Dominguez, but second in Zurich and Gashimov Memorial were strong results. In Norway he shared 4-5th, but he won Dortmund and shared first in one Grand Prix event while doing much worse in another. Then he finished the year with last place in London. Together with Anand and Carlsen still one of the three players with the best results this year.
Dennis Monokroussos has stated that 2014 was a very good year for Kramnik:
http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2014/12/14/london-chess-classic-round-5-anand-beats-adams-and-wins-on-t.html
The question is if very good isn't a bit of an exaggeration. Kramnik was one of the two favourites in the Candidates but underperformed with an even score. In the Dortmund he usually wins, which was unusually weak this year, he finished with a winless -2, behind all players except Baramidze. Russia was expected to win the Olympiad, but Kramnik on first board, who never had lost a game in an Olympiad, lost to Vallejo and Kasimdzhanov and Russia didn't even medal. In Norway Chess Kramnik finished 9th of the 10 participants, and fell out of the top 10 for the first time in 22 years. On the good side one can count his second places in Petrosian Memorial and London. An OK year, but not more than that.
Carlsen won Zurich and Gashimov Memorial, the title match, plus the rapid and blitz World Championships. Even if many meant he was less dominant than some earlier years, it is still a good year overall. The rapid and blitz World Championships have never been as strong as this year, and winning both plus the classical title match is an achievement that won't be easy to repeat. Carlsen finished second in the two events he didn't win, but "only" has 42 points down to second place on the rating list after Caruana's rise.
Aronian started the year with a very impressive win in Tata, but disappointed after that, both as favourite in the Candidates and in several other tournaments. He is finishing the year outside the top 5, which no one would have expected in March, when he had as much as 43 points down to third place. Quite a depressing year for Aronian, but there is no reason to doubt that he soon will be back at his best again.
Grischuk had a very good 2014, winning Petrosian Memorial, as well as both the blitz and rapid sections of the World Mind Games. He also finished third in Norway Chess, and ends 2014 with 2810, less than ten points behind Caruana in second place. He is top three on all rating lists, classical, rapid and blitz.
Topalov returned to the 2800 club, and Giri had a great year and is now seventh on the rating list. The Chinese players continue to move their positions forward, and after winning the Chess Olympiad they also got a first place in Qatar Masters, where Yu Yangyi beat both rating favourites Giri and Kramnik.