Memorial Tournaments?

[MJMcCready]

How many former British Chess Champions have had memorial tournaments/congresses named after them? H. E. Atkins has, and that's understandable of course, but upon a closer look it doesn't appear as common as I assumed it was

[Roger de Coverly]

The weekend tournaments at the British Championship Congress are named after Penrose, Atkins and Yates.

Back in 1975, there was an Alexander Memorial
https://www.britbase.co.uk/britbase/pgn ... viewer.htm

There was also a Golombek Memorial at Paignton in 2000.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

There must be more!

This is a nice one:

https://congress.org.uk/congress/440/home

The 8th PETER & PEGGY CLARKE MEMORIAL RAPIDPLAY CHESS CONGRESS

Welcome
The annual Peter & Peggy Clarke Memorial Rapidplay Chess Congress
will be held on
Saturday 28th September 2024

Further down that page, we learn:

Peter & Peggy Clarke
FIDE and British Master P.H. Clarke (18 Mar 1933 – 11 Dec 2014) will be best remembered as biographer to Tal and to Petrosyan, but he was so much more. Doing national service he was to learn the Russian that was to so shape his writings. For a brief period in the late 1950s, and early sixties, he was the number two player in England. He played, of course, below Jonathan Penrose. At the British Championships he finished second on his first appearance; he was to tie for silver medal on no less than five occasions, appearing, almost without a break for thirty years, a run that ended in 1982. He represented the BCF – as it then was – in eight Olympiads, playing on top board in 1966.The Clarke family moved to the West of England in the late Sixties. PHC played in thirteen WECU Championships, and lost only twice. As a player he could be cautious, agreeing too readily to draws. Accuracy and respect meant more to him than ambition. In his time he beat Larsen, Penrose and Szabo. In 1962 he married BH Wood’s daughter, Peggy.

Margaret Eileen Elizabeth Clarke (29 Oct 1937 - 15 Sept 2018). She was the only daughter of BH Wood OBE, proprietor and editor of Chess Magazine. She tied for first place in the British Ladies Championship in 1966. She became an International Correspondence Lady Master and came 12th in the 1984-92 Ladies World Correspondence Championship. Peggy was a Woman Candidate Master and was also a finalist in ‘Brain of Britain’. Peter and Peggy founded Hexagon Equipment Ltd. But they did not restrict themselves to this, also selling books and running chess tournaments. They had three daughters.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

There are numerous smaller (local) memorial tournaments to players that are remembered locally and sometimes further afield (e.g. Andrew Leadbetter Memorial Tournament, Camberley Keith Richardson Rapid Play Tournament, Dave Lockwood Memorial 'Rapidplay Bash', Brian Dudley Memorial tournament, Keith Escott Memorial Congress, David Dunn Rapidplay Memorial Tournament, and the list could go on for a while).

More famous is the Vera Menchik Memorial tournaments (e.g. the Menchik Memorial Challengers Tournament 2024 and earlier iterations).

There were the Staunton Memorial tournaments:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_St ... Tournament

The Churchill Memorial Tournaments were named after Winston Churchill, I believe (they ran in the 1960s but not sure until when).

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html

The Stevenson Memorial tournaments also ran in the 1960s, and it was this tournament that was renamed the Churchill Memorial Tournament after Churchill died in 1965.

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html

I think (not 100% sure here) that the Stevenson Memorial Fund set up after the death of R.H.S. Stevenson (Rufus Henry Streatfield Stevenson, husband of Vera Menchik) is what led to the Stevenson Memorial Tournaments (later the Churchill Memorial Tournaments).

[MJMcCready]

There are numerous smaller (local) memorial tournaments to players that are remembered locally and sometimes further afield (e.g. Andrew Leadbetter Memorial Tournament, Camberley Keith Richardson Rapid Play Tournament, Dave Lockwood Memorial 'Rapidplay Bash', Brian Dudley Memorial tournament, Keith Escott Memorial Congress, David Dunn Rapidplay Memorial Tournament, and the list could go on for a while).

More famous is the Vera Menchik Memorial tournaments (e.g. the Menchik Memorial Challengers Tournament 2024 and earlier iterations).

There were the Staunton Memorial tournaments:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_St ... Tournament

The Churchill Memorial Tournaments were named after Winston Churchill, I believe (they ran in the 1960s but not sure until when).

https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html

The Stevenson Memorial tournaments also ran in the 1960s, and it was this tournament that was renamed the Churchill Memorial Tournament after Churchill died in 1965.

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/1 ... iewer.html

I think (not 100% sure here) that the Stevenson Memorial Fund set up after the death of R.H.S. Stevenson (Rufus Henry Streatfield Stevenson, husband of Vera Menchik) is what led to the Stevenson Memorial Tournaments (later the Churchill Memorial Tournaments).

Yes on a more local level there are many more, in all probability most parts of the land have them. More curious about tournaments/congresses named after those who succeeded on a national level. I assumed there were many, and perhaps there were once but they were discontinued. I have not found much evidence of this yet however.

So we have:
Staunton
Penrose
Golombek
Yates
Alexander
Menchik
Atkins

[Ian Thompson]

There are numerous smaller (local) memorial tournaments to players that are remembered locally and sometimes further afield (e.g. ..., Camberley Keith Richardson Rapid Play Tournament, ...).

If "British chess champions" is taken to mean champion at any level, Keith Richardson should be on the list as the U21 champion in 1962.

[MJMcCready]

There are numerous smaller (local) memorial tournaments to players that are remembered locally and sometimes further afield (e.g. ..., Camberley Keith Richardson Rapid Play Tournament, ...).

If "British chess champions" is taken to mean champion at any level, Keith Richardson should be on the list as the U21 champion in 1962.

No harm in broadening the level at which players became national champion at.