Chigorin Memorial

The Chigorin Memorial is a chess tournament played in honour of Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), founder of the Soviet Chess School and one of the leading players of his day. The first and most important edition was the one played in 1909 in St. Petersburg. Later on, an international invitation Memorial tournament series was established, and mainly played in the Black Sea resort Sochi (from 1963 to 1990). Further irregular tournaments had been held in 1947, 1951, 1961, and 1972, played in diverse venues. From 1993 the venue returned to his hometown. The Memorial is now played as an Open event.

St. Petersburg 1909
President of the organising committee was Peter Petrovich Saburov, President of the St. Petersburg Chess Club. Members of the committee were Boris Maliutin, O. Sossnitzky, V. Tschudowski, Sergius A. Znosko-Borovsky and Eugene A. Znosko-Borovsky. The main event lasted from 14 February to 12 March 1909.

Rubinstein and Lasker won 875 rubles (each), Spielmann and Duras 475 rubles (each), Bernstein 190 rubles, Teichmann 120 rubles, Perlis 80 rubles, Cohn, Schlechter, and Salwe 40 rubles (each).

1947–1972
From 1947, there were several Chigorin memorial tournaments, but it was not until 1963 that it was established as an annual event in Sochi. These tournaments were all played on the round robin format.

Back to St. Petersburg (1993–present)
Since 1993, the Chigorin Memorial has been played as an open Swiss system tournament. The 13th edition was not played for superstitious reasons. The winners are listed below.