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Paul Keres Memorial Tournament

Paul Keres

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.

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.

Tallinn

Tallinn International

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

# 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
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From 1991 the Tallinn international has been replaced by an annual rapid tournament.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.

# 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 2008 Vladimir Malakhov Ilze Bērziņa
Viktorija Čmilytė
19 2009 Alexey Dreev
Vasily Yemelin
Elisabeth Pähtz
20 2011 Alexei Shirov
21 2012 Alexei Shirov
22 2013 Alexei Shirov
23 2014 Igor Kovalenko
24 2015 Sergei Tiviakov
25 2016

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. 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, 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.

Year Winner
2004 Kaido Külaots
Artiom Smirnov
2005 Meelis Kanep
2006 Mikhail Rytshagov
2007 Georgy Timoshenko
2008 Vasily Yemelin

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.

# 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 Viktor 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 Juri Vetemaa
15 1990 Jonathan Berry
John Donaldson
16 1991 Ľubomír Ftáčnik
17 1992 Ľubomír Ftáčnik
18 1993 Igor Štohl
19 1994 Jonathan Berry
Juri Vetemaa
Gary Basanta
20 1995 John Hallam
Juri 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
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