DIVAN (THE)

London major chess meeting-place in the 19^th century located at 101 The Strand in London. The Simpson’s restaurant first opened in 1828 as the ‘home of chess’, later to be renamed ‘The Grand Cigar Divan’. Chessplayers would lounge on sofas and divans to play their games. Adolf Anderssen, Howard Staunton, Paul Morphy, Johannes Zukertort, Wilheim Steinitz, and Emanuel Lasker were among the regular members. In 1860 Louis Charles Mahe De Labourdonnais was engaged for playing visitors. The chess tradition died out early last century (1903) but was revived in 1980 mainly by the English Grandmaster Ray Keene. Apparently in 1849 the Divan was the place of the first chess tournament but was definitively the venue of the London Tournament of 1862.