Kramnik's year hasn't been bad, but I doubt he will be given the best player of the year award. The only event he won was a knockout where he didn't play any top 20 opponent. He played great chess in the Candidates when Carlsen edged him out, but not in Tal Memorial, Alekhine Memorial and Zurich, and even if he did well in Dortmund he still didn't win what was one of the weakest editions ever of the event. My guess is that his year on the whole won't be enough for his third Chess Oscar.
Chess Oscar 2013
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You forgot Larsen, who won the first one.
Topalov and Korchnoi also won it once each, and even if most winners have been fairly obvious many thought Topalov should have won it also in 1996. Kasparov didn't have one of his better years while Topalov won five tournaments, but it wasn't enough to get the award. He got it in 2005 instead, and then it was quite unavoidable.
If it wasn't clear before the title match it is now obvious that Carlsen will get the Chess Oscar for best player of the year for the fifth year in a row. He will be the first player ever to get it six consecutive years if he gets it also for 2014.
Carlsen's results in 2013:
Won Sinquefield Cup, +3 -0 =3, 2966 performance
Won Wijk, +7 -0 =6, 2930 performance
Won title match against Anand, +3 -0 =7, 2882 performance
Won Candidates, +5 -2 =7, 2850 performance
Second in Tal Memorial, +3 -1 =5, 2846 performance
Second in Stavanger, +3 -1 =5, 2834 performance
Carlsen scored 24 wins, 4 losses and 33 draws. Four losses is much compared to the two in 2012, but both Anand and Kramnik lost more than ten games this year, and Carlsen faced the strongest fields. In his five latest events all his opponents except Hammer were 2710+, and only one more was below 2740 (Candidate Andreikin). Considering this winning 46% of his games is quite impressive. Against opposition rated 2775 or higher Carlsen was undefeated for the third year in a row, scoring +9 -0 =20 (Anand and Kramnik both had a big minus scores against 2775+ opposition).
bump
The prestigious award given to the best chess player in the world has been awarded since 1967. Kasparov won it 11 times, Karpov 9, Anand 6, Carlsen 4, Fischer 3, Spassky and Kramnik 2. Between 1989 and 1994 there was no award, otherwise Kasparov would have won it at least 16 times.
Who has been the best chess player in the world in 2013? When looking around various blogs that mention the subject there only seems to be four Candidates.
Carlsen is hard to pass by here. He has a 74 point lead on the rating list after winning Wijk, Candidates and Sinquefield Cup (the tournament with the highest rating average ever) and if he wins also the title match it is hard to see how anyone could argue against Carlsen winning the best player of the year award for the fifth year in a row.
Gelfand won Tal Memorial ahead of Carlsen and shared first in a couple of strong events apart from that. The question is if he has been the best player in the world in 2013 though, and in the most important event (Candidates) he finished with a minus score and lost both games to Carlsen. Gelfand has certainly had a very impressive year though.
Kramnik won World Cup and lost out on tiebreak in the Candidates, but has also had some weaker results like last place in Tal Memorial and Zurich. On the whole his year ought not be enough to give him his third Chess Oscar.
Anand has had another rather bland year, but if he would beat Carlsen in the title match many would see that alone as enough to rank him as the best player in the world 2013. But then he first needs to win that match, otherwise few would rank him as one of the five best players in the world 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Oscar