Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament
Encyclopedia
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
tournament held in honour of the English chess player Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton
Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as having been the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape—the Staunton pattern—that...
(1810-1874).
The first edition was played in 2003 in Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Simpson's-in-the-Strand
Simpson's-in-the-Strand is one of London's oldest traditional English restaurants. Situated in the Strand, it is part of the Savoy Buildings, which also contain one of the world's most famous hotels, the Savoy....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to mark its 175th birthday; subsequent editions have also been 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
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
known as "The Divan" or "Simpson's Divan"). In 1851, it was the venue of the famous "Immortal Game", played between Adolf Anderssen
Adolf Anderssen
Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...
and Lionel Kieseritzky
Lionel Kieseritzky
Lionel Adalbert Bagration Felix Kieseritzky was a 19th-century chess master, famous primarily for a game he lost against Adolf Anderssen, which because of its brilliance was named "The Immortal Game".-Early life:...
.
The first three editions of the tournament were played as a four-player double round-robin
Round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...
. The fourth and fifth edition saw an expansion to twelve participants, contesting a single round robin. The 2008 tournament was the strongest to be held in London since 1986.
Implementing a further change in 2009, the organizers split the event into two groups, the main attraction being a double round "Scheveningen" format and the other, a single round "all-play-all" won by Jan Timman
Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chess Grandmaster who was one of the world's leading players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West"...
of the Netherlands, ahead of Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ; pronounced in the original Russian as "karch NOY"; Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, born March 23, 1931 is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit...
, among others.
Winners
Below is the list of winners of the Staunton Memorial. The names of winners who have taken the trophy on tie-break are shown in bold typeface.| # | Year | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2003 | Jon Speelman Jon Speelman Jonathan Simon "Jon" Speelman is an English Grandmaster chess player, mathematician and chess writer.-Early life and education:He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied mathematics, earning a doctorate.-Career:... |
| 2 | 2004 | Daniel J. King Daniel J. King Daniel John King is an English chess grandmaster, writer, coach, journalist and broadcaster.-Chess career:... Jon Speelman Jon Speelman Jonathan Simon "Jon" Speelman is an English Grandmaster chess player, mathematician and chess writer.-Early life and education:He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied mathematics, earning a doctorate.-Career:... |
| 3 | 2005 | Jonathan Levitt Jon Speelman Jon Speelman Jonathan Simon "Jon" Speelman is an English Grandmaster chess player, mathematician and chess writer.-Early life and education:He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied mathematics, earning a doctorate.-Career:... |
| 4 | 2006 | Ivan Sokolov Ivan Sokolov Ivan Sokolov is a chess grandmaster born in Jajce, SFR Yugoslavia, who currently resides in the Netherlands. Sokolov won the 1988 Yugoslav Championship.... |
| 5 | 2007 | Michael Adams |
| 6 | 2008 | Michael Adams |
| 7 | 2009 | Nigel Short Nigel Short Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess... |