Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand both named Sportsman of the Year 2012
Friday Feb 15, 2013
Norway’s world No1, Magnus Carlsen, 22, and India’s official world champion, Vishy Anand, 43, have both won Sportsman of the Year 2012 awards, an unprecedented double for top chess players.
Carlsen has become a cult hero in his homeland and readers of Dagbladet, Norway’s second largest tabloid, gave him more votes than the next three in the poll combined. Anand triumphed in the Indian vote ahead of the cricketer Virat Kohli at an award ceremony televised nationwide. Voters liked his match win against Boris Gelfand, his third successful world crown defence since 2007, and also his Mind Champions Academy which claims 17 million students.
The Carlsen v Anand rivalry has sparked new elite tournaments as they square up for a possible title series in late 2013. Anand is at his best in one-to-one matches but he has struggled in tournaments and has dropped to No6 in the rankings.
Hence the importance for the Chennai-Madras GM of the current Grenke Classic in Baden-Baden, Germany, which stages its final two rounds this weekend.
Baden-Baden has dominated the German Bundesliga for a decade with a team whose nucleus includes Anand, the England No1, Michael Adams, and the German No1, Arkady Naiditsch, who are all competing in the Grenke event. The tournament is tailor-made for Anand’s increasingly urgent efforts to regain peak levels. He is seeded to win it, with Italy’s 20-year-old world No10, Fabiano Caruana, his main rival.
Anand began slowly and Caruana took an early lead but the champion hit form with an impressive win from Naiditsch and closed to within half a point of the Italian with three rounds left.
Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/bc43b34c6998961f78073aaaf7be17da/magnus-carlsen-and-vishy-anand-both-named-sportsman-of-the-year-2012#ixzz2L2nL2aEh
Magnus should be the sportsman of the century.