HASTINGS

City of England where chess tournaments have been held since 1920 (except between 1940-1944) at the end of December-beginning of January. Two great tournaments organized early predecessor of the festival were the tournaments of 1885 (see below) and in 1919 won by José Raúl Capablanca (10,5 out of 11).

The schedule of the Congress includes a main tournament Grandmasters’ tourney and a row of competitions of different categories. Before 1971 the number of participants was 10 (besides 7 tournaments), later it was increased in 4-6 persons, accordingly the terms of the tournaments were prolonged till the middle of January. Most of World Champions and leading chess players performed in these tournaments at different times. Especially successful in the 1920s were Savielly Tartakower (3 wins), in the 1930s Salo Flohr (4 wins), in the 1950s–60s-Svetozar Gligoric (5 times), Paul Keres, Laszlo Szabo and Ulf Andersson (3wins). Soviet chess players have participated since 1934 (Mikhail Botvinnik shared 5th-6th places with Andor Lilienthal).

The winners of the Premier tournament: 1920 Frederick Yates, 1921 Borislav Kostic, 1922 Akiba Rubinstein, 1923 Max Euwe, 1924 Gaza Maroczy and Savielly Tartakover, 1925 Alexander Alekhine and Milan Vidmar, 1926 Savielly Tartakower, 1927 Savielly Tartakower, 1928 Edouard Colle, Frank Marshall and Sandor Takacs, 1929 José Raúl Capablanca, 1930 Max Euwe, 1931 Salo Flohr, 1932 Salo Flohr, 1933 Salo Flohr, 1934 George Alan Thomas, Max Euwe and Salo Flohr, 1935 Ruben Fine, 1936 Alexander Alekhine, 1937 Samuel Reshevsky, 1938 Laszlo Szabo, 1939 Frank Parr, 1945 Savielly Tartakower, 1946 Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander, 1947 Szabo, 1948 Rossolimo, 1949  Szabo, 1950 Unziker, 1951 Svetozar Gligoric, 1952 Henry Golombek, Antonio Medina, Jonathan Penrose and David Yanovsky, 1953 Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander and David Bronstein, 1954 Paul Keres and Vasily Smyslov, 1955 Viktor Korchnoi and Olafsson, 1956 Svetozar Gligoric and Bent Larsen, 1957 Bent Larsen, 1958 Uhlmann, 1959 Svetozar Gligoric, 1960 Svetozar Gligoric, 1961 Mikhail Botvinnik, 1962 Svetozar Gligoric and Alexander Kotov, 1963 Mikhail Tal, 1964 Paul Keres, 1965 Boris Spassky and Wolfgang Uhlmann, 1966 Mikhail Botvinnik, 1967 Vastimil Hort, Florin Gheorghiu, Leonid Stein and Alexey Suetin, 1968 Vasily Smyslov, 1969 Lajos Portisch, 1970 Lajos Portisch, 1971 Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov, 1972 Bent Larsen, 1972 Gennady Kuzmin, Laszlo Szabo, Mikhail Tal and Jan Timman, 1974 Vastimil Hort, 1975 Bronstein, Vastimil Hort and Ulhmann, 1976 Oleg Romanishin, 1977 Roman Dzindzidashvili, 1978 Ulf Andersson, 1979 Ulf Andersson, 1980 Ulf Andersson, 1981 Viktor Kupreichik, 1982 Rafael Vaganian, 1983 Margeir Karlsson, 1984 Evgeny Sveshnikov, 1985 Petursson, 1986 Lputian, 1987 Nigel Short, 1988 Nigel Short, 1989 Dolmatov, 1990 Evgeny Bareev, 1991 Evgeny Bareev, 1992 Evgeny Bareev and Judith Polgar, 1993 John Nunn, 1994 Thomas Luther, 1995 Bogdan Lalic, Stewart Conquest, Alexander Khalifman, 1996 Eduard Rozentalis, Mark Hebden and John Nunn, 1997 Matthew Sadler, 1998 Ivan Sokolov, 1999 Emil Sutovsky, 2000 Stewart Conquest, Krishnan Sasikiran, 2001 Vladimir Barsov, Pentala Harikrishna and Krishnan Sasikiran, 2002 Peter Heine Nielsen, 2003 Jonathan Rowson and Vasillios Kotronias, 2004 Vladimir Belov, 2005 Valeriy Nevedov, 2006 Merab Gagunashvili and Valeriy Nevedov, 2007 Vadim Malakhatko, Nidjat Mamedov, Valeriy Nevedov, 2008. Igor Kurnosov, 2009 Andrei Istratescu, Romain Edouard, David Howell and Mark Hebden, 2010 Deep Sengupta and Arghyadip Das, 2011 Wang Yue, 2012 Gawain Jones, 2013  Mikheil Mchedlishvili, Igor Khenkin, Ma Qun, Mark Hebden, Jahongir Vakhidov, Justin Sarkar, Jovica Radovanovic, 2014 Zhao Jun, 2015 Jahongir Vakhidov, and Aleksander Mista, 2016 Deep Sengupta, 2017 Deep Sengupta and Lou Yiping, 2018 Oleg Korneev, Sarunas Sulskis, Daniel Gormally, Martin Petrov, Alexander Cherniaev and Conor Murphy, 2019 Magesh Panchanathan.