I think we can wait for the result of the WC and revisit the Chess Oscar after this
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The Russian Chess Oscar award for best player of the year was discontinued after Carlsen won it for the fifth time in a row for his results in 2013. Since then he would have been the fairly obvious winner every year. In 2014 for winning title match, Gashimov Memorial, Zurich, and both Rapid and Blitz World Championships. In 2015 for winning Wijk, Gashimov Memorial, Grenke, London and Qatar. In 2016 for winning Wijk, Norway Chess, the Grand Chess Tour and the title match. It is difficult to argue that any other player won more prestigious top events any of these years.
But for 2017 it is even more difficult to argue that Carlsen has had the best year. Even if he has been second in Wijk, Grenke and Sinquefield Cup, those aren't results that would have given you a Chess Oscar in the past. But which player would be most deserved of winning it for 2017? The first places in top events have been fairly evenly distributed.
So won Tata.
Grischuk won FIDE GP Sharjah.
Nakamura won Zurich.
Ding Liren won FIDE GP Moscow.
Radjabov won FIDE GP Geneva.
Wojtaszek won Dortmund.
MVL won Sinquefield Cup.
My pick would be Aronian, who won both Norway and Grenke. Then he had a few less Chess Oscar worthy results as well. In the GP event won by Radjabov, Aronian finished shared 11-14th, in Sinquefield Cup he shared 4-5th, and in Tata he was 3-5th together with Adhiban and Wei Yi. But in all good enough results, and two impressive tournament wins.
If MVL or So wins the World Cup they might have a case as best player in 2017. There is also the very strong Isle of Man Open both will play (together with Kramnik, Caruana, Anand, Nakamura, etc), so there is still room to win some heavy title before the year is over.