Paul Keres Memorial Tournament

The Paul Keres Memorial Tournament is a chess tournament played in honour of chess grandmaster Paul Keres (1916–1975). It usually takes place in Vancouver, Canada and Tallinn, Estonia.

An annual international chess tournament has been held in Tallinn every other year since 1969. Keres won this tournament in 1971 and 1975. Starting in 1977 after Keres' death, it has been called the Paul Keres Memorial Tournament. From 1991, the tournament has been held yearly and changed into a rapid event. From 1999 this tournament also had a women's section. In the past twenty years, apart from this rapid tournament, several other memorial tournaments have been played in honour of Keres.^[1]

In 1975, Keres won a tournament in Vancouver. It was his last tournament he would ever play in, as on his way back to his native Estonia, he died from a heart attack. There has been an annual memorial tournament in Vancouver ever since.^[2]

Tallinn

Tallinn International

The Tallinn International has been held every other year from 1969 to 1989. It was named after Keres from 1977.^[3]

#	Year	Winner
1	1969	Leonid Stein
2	1971	Mikhail Tal Paul Keres
3	1973	Mikhail Tal
4	1975	Paul Keres
5	1977	Mikhail Tal
6	1979	Tigran Petrosian
7	1981	Mikhail Tal
8	1983	Mikhail Tal Rafael Vaganian
9	1985	Sergey Dolmatov
10	1987	Mikhail Gurevich
11	1989	Georgy Timoshenko Lembit Oll Jaan Ehlvest

Tallinn Rapid

From 1991 the Tallinn international has been replaced by an annual rapid tournament. From 1999, the tournament has had a separate women's section.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]

#	Year	Winner	Women's section
1	1991	Anto Remmel
2	1992	Leonid Yudasin
3	1993	Jaan Ehlvest
4	1994	Viktor Korchnoi
5	1995	Lembit Oll
6	1996	Vassily Ivanchuk
7	1997	Viktor Gavrikov
8	1998	Suat Atalık Lembit Oll
9	1999	Viktor Gavrikov	Tatiana Stepovaia
10	2000	Vassily Ivanchuk	Tatiana Stepovaia
11	2001	Jan Timman	Viktorija Čmilytė
12	2002	Viktor Gavrikov	Dana Reizniece
13	2003	Alexander Morozevich	Pia Cramling
14	2004	Alexei Shirov	Maia Chiburdanidze
15	2005	Alexei Shirov	Ekaterina Kovalevskaya
16	2006	Vassily Ivanchuk Anatoly Karpov Rustam Kasimdzhanov	Ilze Bērziņa
18^[16]	2008	Vladimir Malakhov	Ilze Bērziņa Viktorija Čmilytė
19	2009	Alexey Dreev Vasily Yemelin	Elisabeth Pähtz^[17]
20	2011	Alexei Shirov
21	2012	Alexei Shirov
22	2013	Alexei Shirov
23	2014	Igor Kovalenko
24	2015	Sergei Tiviakov
25	2016	Igor Kovalenko

Keres Memorial Festival

In the 1990s there have been several Keres memorials in Tallinn which were played at regular time control. These tournaments seem to have been held irregularly.^[18]^[19]^[20]^[21] At present there is an annual Keres Memorial Festival which started in 2004 with a special rapid tournament, where Viswanathan Anand emerged as a winner,^[22] followed by a regular tournament. The winners of the regular tournament for 2004 and subsequent years are listed below. The field of these tournaments has been notably weaker than that of the rapid tournaments.^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30]

Year	Winner
2004	Kaido Külaots Artem Smirnov
2005	Meelis Kanep
2006	Mikhail Rytshagov
2007	Georgy Timoshenko
2008	Vasily Yemelin
2010	Olav Sepp^[31]
2014	Alexandre Danin^[32]

Vancouver

The tournament in Vancouver has been played ever since Keres won it in 1975. It was Keres' final tournament, as he died shortly thereafter.^[33]^[34]

#	Year	Winner
	1975	Paul Keres
1	1976	James Tarjan
2	1977	John Watson
3	1978	Robert Zuk
4	1979	Peter Biyiasas John Grefe James McCormick
5	1980	Viktors Pupols
6	1981	John Donaldson Ray Fasano
7	1982	John Donaldson Eric Tangborn
8	1983	John Donaldson
9	1984	Leon Piasetski Gordon Taylor Jeremy Silman Robert Zuk
10	1985	John Donaldson Lionel Joyner John Braley
11	1986	Kevin Spraggett
12	1987	Tom O'Donnell
13	1988	Alex Kuznecov Kevin Spraggett
14	1989	Jüri Vetemaa
15	1990	Jonathan Berry John Donaldson
16	1991	Ľubomír Ftáčnik
17	1992	Ľubomír Ftáčnik
18	1993	Igor Štohl
19	1994	Jonathan Berry Jüri Vetemaa Gary Basanta
20	1995	John Hallam Jüri Vetemaa Yan Teplitsky
21	1996	Georgi Orlov
22	1997	Yan Teplitsky
23	1998	Kevin Spraggett
24	1999	Yan Teplitsky Georgi Orlov Jack Yoos
25	2000	Vladimir Epishin
26	2001	Georgi Orlov
27	2002	Fanhao Meng Georgi Orlov Jack Yoos Besnik Beqo
28	2003	Georgi Orlov
29	2004	Georgi Orlov
30	2005	Jack Yoos
31	2006	Alfred Pechisker
32	2007	Georgi Orlov
33	2008	Georgi Orlov Bindi Cheng
34	2009	Jack Yoos
35	2010	Jack Yoos Georgi Orlov Katerina Rohonyan Manuel Rivas Pastor Roman Jiganchine
36	2011	Georgi Orlov Maxim Doroshenko
37	2012	Jack Yoos
38	2013	Georgi Orlov
39	2014	Georgi Orlov^[35]
40	2015	Jason Cao^[36]
41	2016	Tanraj Sohal
42	2017	Tanraj Sohal
43	2018	Tanraj Sohal, Stanislav Kriventsov
44	2019	Georgi Orlov, Raymond Kaufman
45	2021	Peter Yong Qiu

References

^ "Chess News - Shirov wins Paul Keres Memorial". ChessBase.com. 25 January 2005. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "The Paul Keres Memorial Chess Tournament - History and Coming Events". Keresmemorial.chessbc.ca. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ http://al20102007.narod.ru/it.html
^ "Eesti Maleliit". Maleliit.ee. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "Eesti Maleliit". Maleliit.ee. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "The Week in Chess 67". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 114". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 166". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 222". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 273". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 322". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 375". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 428". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 479". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 532". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ http://www.shakki.net/nuoriso/turn/Keres08.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
^ Paehtz, Yemelin and Dreev Victorious at Paul Keres Memorial
^ "The Week in Chess 71". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 191". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 303". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 352: Paul Keres Memorial". The Week in Chess. 2001-08-06. Retrieved 2016-01-10.
^ "The Week in Chess 525". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ PAUL KERESE MÄLESTUSFESTIVAL 2004 Archived September 14, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Paul Keres Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "Paul Keres - 90 Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "Paul Keres Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "Paul Keres Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "The Week in Chess 507". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 636". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ "The Week in Chess 689". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
^ Paul Keres Memorial. Tournament report FIDE
^ International Paul Keres Memorial Tournament 2014. Tournament report FIDE
^ "Keres Memorial Winners in Chess, Vancouver". Members.shaw.ca. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ "Paul Keres Memorial History". .telus.net. Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
^ Report 2014 Keres Memorial Canadian Chess Newsfeed
^ 40th Paul Keres Memorial. Tournament report FIDE

[1] "Chess News - Shirov wins Paul Keres Memorial". ChessBase.com. 25 January 2005. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[2] "The Paul Keres Memorial Chess Tournament - History and Coming Events". Keresmemorial.chessbc.ca. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[3] ttp://al20102007.narod.ru/it.html

[4] "Eesti Maleliit". Maleliit.ee. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[5] "Eesti Maleliit". Maleliit.ee. Archived from the original on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[6] "The Week in Chess 67". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[7] "The Week in Chess 114". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[8] "The Week in Chess 166". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[9] "The Week in Chess 222". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[10] "The Week in Chess 273". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[11] "The Week in Chess 322". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[12] "The Week in Chess 375". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[13] "The Week in Chess 428". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[14] "The Week in Chess 479". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[15] "The Week in Chess 532". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[16] ttp://www.shakki.net/nuoriso/turn/Keres08.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}

[17] Paehtz, Yemelin and Dreev Victorious at Paul Keres Memorial

[18] "The Week in Chess 71". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[19] "The Week in Chess 191". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[20] "The Week in Chess 303". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[21] "The Week in Chess 352: Paul Keres Memorial". The Week in Chess. 2001-08-06. Retrieved 2016-01-10.

[22] "The Week in Chess 525". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[23] PAUL KERESE MÄLESTUSFESTIVAL 2004 Archived September 14, 2005, at the Wayback Machine

[24] "Paul Keres Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[25] "Paul Keres - 90 Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[26] "Paul Keres Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[27] "Paul Keres Memorial Festival". Maleliit.ee. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[28] "The Week in Chess 507". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[29] "The Week in Chess 636". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[30] "The Week in Chess 689". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.

[31] Paul Keres Memorial. Tournament report FIDE

[32] International Paul Keres Memorial Tournament 2014. Tournament report FIDE

[33] "Keres Memorial Winners in Chess, Vancouver". Members.shaw.ca. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[34] "Paul Keres Memorial History". .telus.net. Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2011-10-29.

[35] Report 2014 Keres Memorial Canadian Chess Newsfeed

[36] 40th Paul Keres Memorial. Tournament report FIDE

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v t e Major recurring international chess tournaments
Strong chess tournaments Mini chess tournaments Round-robin chess tournaments
Major present (average rating > 2700; round-robin system generally)	Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting (since 1973) Grand Chess Tour (since 2015) Grenke Chess Classic (since 2013) London Chess Classic (since 2009) Norway Chess (since 2013) Shamkir Chess (since 2014) Shenzhen Masters (since 2017) Sinquefield Cup (since 2013) Tata Steel Chess Tournament (since 1938) UzChess Cup (since 2024)
Other present (Swiss system generally)	Aeroflot Open (since 2002) Australasian Masters (since 1987) Biel Chess Festival (since 1968) Canadian Open (since 1956) Capablanca Memorial (since 1962) Cappelle-la-Grande Open (since 1985) Carlos Torre Repetto Memorial (since 1987) Chigorin Memorial (since 1909) Doeberl Cup (since 1963) Dubai Open (since 1999) Gibraltar Chess Festival (since 2003) Hastings International Chess Congress (since 1920) Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament (since 1995) Lublin Grandmaster Tournament (since 2009) Paul Keres Memorials (Tallinn, since 1969) (Vancouver, since 1975) Prague Chess Festival (since 2019) Qatar Masters Open (2014–2015, since 2023) Reykjavik Open (since 1964) Riga Technical University Open (since 2011) Rilton Cup (since 1971) Rubinstein Memorial (since 1963) South African Open (since 1962) U.S. Open (since 1900) TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament (since 1993) Vidmar Memorial (since 1969) World Open (since 1973) Xtracon Chess Open (since 1979) Zurich Christmas Open (since 1977)
Recently cancelled (after 2000)	Alekhine Memorial (1956–2013, irregular) Acropolis (1968–2009) Aerosvit (2006–2008) Amber (1992–2011) Bilbao Chess Masters Final (2008–2016) Howard Staunton Memorial (2003–2009) Linares (1978–2010) Mar del Plata (1928–2001) Millionaire Chess (2014–2016) M-Tel Masters (2005–2009) North Sea Cup (1976–2008) Pearl Spring (2008–2010) Reggio Emilia (1947–2012) Tal Memorial (2006–2018) Zurich Chess Challenge (2012–2017)
Major past (19th–20th century)	American Chess Congress (1857–1923) Carl Schlechter Memorial (1923–1996) DSB Congress (1879–1932) General Government (1940–1944) IBM international (1961–1981) Konex (1977–1994) Leopold Trebitsch Memorial (1907–1938) Lone Pine International (1971–1981) Max Euwe Memorial (1987–1996) Monte Carlo (1901–1904; 1967–1969) Netanya (1961–1983) Palma de Mallorca (1965–1972) Phillips & Drew Kings (1980–1986) Piatigorsky Cup (1963–1966) San Sebastián (1911–1912) Silesian Chess Congress (1922–1939) Tilburg (1977–1998) Triberg (1914–1917)
Chess competitions National championships Supranational championships