Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament

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).

Staunton Memorial tournaments had previously been held in 1946 (Groningen, Mikhail Botvinnik won) and in 1951 (Cheltenham - Lemington Spa - Birmingham, Svetozar Gligorić won). The latter event 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. The fourth to sixth 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 event 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.

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