LENINGRAD

Or St Petersburg before 1917 and since 1992. Second metropolis of Russia. Like Moscow the city has a prestigious chess history with many strong chess players born or living there. Among them are Mikhail Chigorin, Mark Taimanov, Boris Spassky, Alexander Tolush, Viktor Korchnoi, Alexander Khalifman, Peter Svidler, etc. Started in 1920, the city championship is organised annually since 1949. M. Taimanov and A. Likin are the record-holders with five victories each.
The winners are: 1920 Ilya Rabinovich, 1922 Grigory Levenfish, 1924 Grigory Levenfish, 1925, Ilya Rabinovich, Peter Romanovsky, Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky and Grigory Levenfish, 1926 Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky, 1928 Ilya Rabinovich, 1929 Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky, 1930/31 Mikhail Botvinnik, 1932 Mikhail Botvinnik, 1933/34 Georgy Lisizin and Vladimir Alatortsev, 1936 Viacheslav Ragozin, 1937/38, 1938 Alexander Tolush, 1939 Gregory Lisizin, 1940/41 Ilya Rabinovich, 1943 Fedor Sklyarov, 1944 Abram Model, 1945 Viacheslav Ragozin, 1946 Alexander Tolush, 1947 Gregory Lisizin, Alexander Tolush, 1948 Mark Taimanov, 1949 Vitaly Chekhover, 1950 Mark Taimanov, 1952 Mark Taimanov, 1953 Semyon Furman, 1954 Nikolai Kopylov, 1955 Viktor Kortchnoi, 1956 Pavel Kondratiev, 1957 Viktor Kortchnoi and Semyon Furman, 1958 Igor Rubel, 1959 Boris Spassky, 1960 Vladimir Shishkin, 1961 Mark Taimanov and Boris Spassky, 1962 Konstantin Klaman, 1963 Boris Vladimirov, 1964 Viktor Kortchnoi, 1965 Vadim Faivisovich, 1966 E. Ruban, 1967 Alexander Cherepkov, 1968 Alexander Cherepkov, 1969 Vadim Faivisovich, 1970 Mark Tseitlin, 1971 Mark Taimanov, Viacheslav Osnos, 1972 Andrei Lukin, 1973 Mark Taimanov, 1974 Vladimir Karasev, 1975 Mark Tseitlin, 1976 Mark Tseitlin, 1977 Vadim Faivisovich, 1978 Andrei Lukin and Mark Tseitlin, 1979 Igor Polovodin, 1980 Viacheslav Osnos, 1981 Andrei Lukin, 1982 A. Cherepkov, 1983 Andrei Lukin, 1984 Lev Yudasin, 1985 Alex Yermolinsky, 1986 Evgeny Solozhenkin, 1987 Vladimir Epishin, 1988 Andrei Lukin, 1989 Alexey Yuneev, 1990 Konstantin Sakaev and Sergei Ivanov, 1991 Sergei Ivanov, 1992 Sergei Ivanov, 1993 Vasily Yemelin, 1994 Sergey Ivanov, 1995 Peter Svidler, 1996 Alexander Khalifman, 1997 Alexander Khalifman, 1998 Evgeny Solozhenkhin, 1999 Evegeny Shaposhnikov, 2000 Valery Loginov, 2001 Valerij Popov, 2002 Vasily Yemelin, 2003 Denis Yevseev, 2004 Valerij Popov and Valery Loginov, 2005 Valery Loginov, 2006 Valerij Popov, 2007 Marat Makarov, 2008 Spartak Visochyn, 2009 Pavel Anisimov, 2010 Ildar Khairullin, 2011 Vasily Yemelin, 2012 Aleksandr Shimanov, 2013 Denis Yevseev, 2014 Denis Yevseev, 2015 Alexey Zenzera, 2016 Alexey Goganov, 2017 Evgeny Alekseev, 2018 Sergei Lobanov, 2019 Evgeny A. Levin.

The city hosted also a few matches like the World Chess Championship (second part) Kasparov-Karpov in 1986, Candidates Match Karpov-Spassky in 1974 and strong national and international events with some of the best players at the time: 1934 Mikhail Botvinnik, 1937 Robert Fine, 1939 Salo Flohr, 1946 Alexander Tolush, 1960 Mark Taimanov, 1967 Viktor Korchnoi, 1973 Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov (Interzonal), 1997 Oleg Romanishin and Mikhail Tal, 1987 Rafael Vaganian, 2009 Tatania Kosintseva (European Individual Women’s championship).