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.
{| class="wikitable" ! # !! 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Tallinn Rapid From 1991 the Tallinn international has been replaced by an annual rapid tournament.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.
{| class="wikitable" ! # !! 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 DreevVasily Yemelin||Elisabeth PähtzPaehtz, Yemelin and Dreev Victorious at Paul Keres Memorial |- | 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. 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.PAUL KERESE MÄLESTUSFESTIVAL 2004
{| class="wikitable" ! Year !! Winner |- |2004 ||Kaido Külaots Artem Smirnov |- |2005 ||Meelis Kanep |- |2006 ||Mikhail Rytshagov |- |2007 ||Georgy Timoshenko |- |2008 ||Vasily Yemelin |- |2010 ||Olav SeppPaul Keres Memorial. Tournament report FIDE |- |2014 ||Alexandre DaninInternational Paul Keres Memorial Tournament 2014. Tournament report FIDE
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 1975Paul Keres 11976James Tarjan 21977John Watson 31978Robert Zuk 41979Peter Biyiasas John Grefe James McCormick 51980Viktors Pupols 61981John Donaldson Ray Fasano 71982John Donaldson Eric Tangborn 81983John Donaldson 91984Leon Piasetski Gordon Taylor Jeremy Silman Robert Zuk 101985John Donaldson Lionel Joyner John Braley 111986Kevin Spraggett 121987Tom O'Donnell 131988Alex Kuznecov Kevin Spraggett 141989Jüri Vetemaa 151990Jonathan Berry John Donaldson 161991Ľubomír Ftáčnik 171992Ľubomír Ftáčnik 181993Igor Štohl 191994Jonathan Berry Jüri Vetemaa Gary Basanta 201995John Hallam Jüri Vetemaa Yan Teplitsky 211996Georgi Orlov 221997Yan Teplitsky 231998Kevin Spraggett 241999Yan Teplitsky Georgi Orlov Jack Yoos 252000Vladimir Epishin 262001Georgi Orlov 272002Fanhao Meng Georgi Orlov Jack Yoos Besnik Beqo 282003Georgi Orlov 292004Georgi Orlov 302005Jack Yoos 312006Alfred Pechisker 322007Georgi Orlov 332008Georgi Orlov Bindi Cheng 342009Jack Yoos 352010Jack Yoos Georgi Orlov Katerina Rohonyan Manuel Rivas Pastor Roman Jiganchine 362011Georgi Orlov Maxim Doroshenko 372012Jack Yoos 382013Georgi Orlov 392014Georgi OrlovReport 2014 Keres Memorial Canadian Chess Newsfeed 402015Jason Cao40th Paul Keres Memorial. Tournament report FIDE 412016Tanraj Sohal 422017Tanraj Sohal 432018Tanraj Sohal, Stanislav Kriventsov 442019Georgi Orlov, Raymond Kaufman 452021Peter Yong Qiu 462022Dietmar Kolbus Georgi Orlov Jorge Nunez Asencio Raymond Kaufman Keith MacKinnon 472023Georgi Orlov, Neil Doknjas 482024Neil Doknjas Gergely-Andras-Gyula Szabo492025Neil Doknjas, Yidong Chen 502026Vladimir Belous, Megan Lee
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