The Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament was an annual
chess tournament held between 2003 and 2009 in honour of the English chess player
Howard Staunton (1810–1874).
History
The first Staunton Memorial tournament was held in 1946 (at Groningen,
Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess.
Botvinnik ...
won, half a point ahead of
Max Euwe; 20 strong players). This celebrated the 50 years that had passed since the establishment of the Staunton Chess Club in Groningen, and was the first major chess tournament after World War II. A follow-up Groningen 'mini-memorial' was held in 1996 (
Vasily Smyslov won) that comprised the seven surviving participants of the 1946 event, and marked the 100th anniversary of the club.
In 1951, a Staunton Memorial event was held in England (Cheltenham - Lemington Spa - Birmingham,
Svetozar Gligorić won). This commemorated the one hundred years that had passed since the
London 1851 chess tournament, a landmark event in Staunton's life.
The first edition of the modern series was played in 2003 at
Simpson's-in-the-Strand,
London,
England to mark its 175th birthday; subsequent editions were also held there. Simpson's-in-the-Strand is a restaurant which Staunton regularly visited in the 19th century to play and discuss chess (it was then a
coffee house known as "The Divan" or "Simpson's Divan"). In 1851, it was the venue of the famous "Immortal Game", played between
Adolf Anderssen and
Lionel Kieseritzky.
The first three editions of the Staunton Memorial series had been played as a double
round-robin of four, then six players in the third event (British players only). The fourth to sixth edition saw an expansion to twelve participants, contesting a single round robin. The 2006 Staunton Memorial (
Ivan Sokolov won) was the strongest invitation tournament to be held in London since 1986.
Michael Adams won in 2007 and 2008 (surpassing the edition of 2006 in terms of strength and again claimed the strongest closed tournament played in London since 1986).
In 2009, the seventh and last edition of the Staunton Memorial series was split into two attractions: a double round "Scheveningen" format team match between England and The Netherlands (England won 26.5 - 23.5), and a single round "all-play-all" of ten players, won outright by
Jan Timman, veteran
Viktor Korchnoi who beat Timman in their individual game, finished as sole third.
Funding for the tournament ceased in 2009 and so 2010's event comprised only a celebratory Dinner and pro-am exhibition game held to raise funds for
Anatoly Karpov's FIDE Presidential campaign.
Garry Kasparov and
Nigel Short were just two of the guests who participated in the event.
Winners
Below is the list of winners of the Memorial tournament series held in London. The names of winners who have taken the trophy on tie-break are shown in bold typeface.
:
Team challenge match
In its later editions, the tournament also doubled as a ''UK versus Netherlands'' match, although the UK team sometimes comprised a mix of home players and overseas guests. The Netherlands won the matches of 2006, 2007 and 2008, while The UK won the match held in 2009.
References
*Reports from
The Week in Chess2003*Official homepage
External links
Homepage for the 2009 events
{{Chess tournaments
Chess competitions
Recurring sporting events established in 2003
Chess in London
Chess memorial tournaments
2003 establishments in England