The Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in honour of the English chess player Howard Staunton (1810-1874).
The first edition was played in 2003 in Simpson's-in-the-Strand, London, England 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 known as "The Divan" or "Simpson's Divan").[1] In 1851, it was the venue of the famous "Immortal Game", played between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky.
The first three editions of the tournament were played as a four-player double round-robin. 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.[2]
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 of the Netherlands, ahead of Viktor Korchnoi, among others.
Contents |
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 |
| 2 | 2004 | Daniel J. King Jon Speelman |
| 3 | 2005 | Jonathan Levitt Jon Speelman |
| 4 | 2006 | Ivan Sokolov |
| 5 | 2007 | Michael Adams |
| 6 | 2008 | Michael Adams |
| 7 | 2009 | Nigel Short |
The tournament also doubles as a UK versus Netherlands match, although the UK team sometimes comprises 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.