The Leningrad City Chess Championship is a chess tournament held officially in the city of Leningrad, Russia starting from 1920. The city was called Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, then Leningrad until 1991, and Saint Petersburg afterwards. Only players born or living in or around the city were allowed to participate in this event.
The championship continued to be played, in spite of tremendous difficulties, also during the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War, though the tournament of 1941 could not be finished and that of 1942, the most difficult year of the blockade, could not be organized.
The winners include World champions Mikhail Botvinnik (1931 and 1932), Boris Spassky (1959 and 1961) and FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman (1996 and 1997).
List of winners
{| class="sortable wikitable" ! # !! Year !! Winner |- | 1 ||1920 ||Ilya Rabinovich |- | 2 ||1922 || Grigory Levenfish |- | 3 ||1924 || Grigory Levenfish |- | 4 ||1925 || Ilya Rabinovich Peter Romanovsky Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky Grigory Levenfish |- | 5 ||1926 || Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky |- | 6 ||1928 || Ilya Rabinovich |- | 7 ||1929 || Alexander Ilyin-Genevsky |- | 8 ||1931 || Mikhail Botvinnik |- | 9 ||1932 || Mikhail Botvinnik |- | 10 ||1933-4 || Vladimir Alatortsev Georgy Lisitsin |- | 11 ||1936 || Viacheslav Ragozin |- | 12 ||1937 || Dmitry Ossipovich Rovner Alexander Tolush Vitaly Chekhover |- | 13 ||1938 || Alexander Tolush |- | 14 ||1939 || Georgy Lisitsin |- | 15 ||1940 || Ilya Rabinovich |- | 16 ||1941 || align=center | unfinished |- | 17 ||1943 ||Fedor Sklyarov |- | 18 ||1944 ||Abram Model |- | 19 ||1945 || Viacheslav Ragozin |- | 20 ||1946 || Alexander Tolush |- | 21 ||1947 || Georgy Lisitsin Alexander Tolush |- | 22 ||1948 ||Mark Taimanov |- | 23 ||1949 || Vitaly Chekhover |- | 24 ||1950 || Mark Taimanov |- | 25 ||1952 || Mark Taimanov |- | 26 ||1953 || Semyon Furman |- | 27 ||1954 || Nikolai Georgiyevich Kopilov |- | 28 ||1955 || Viktor Korchnoi |- | 29 ||1956 || Pavel Yevseyevich Kondratiev |- | 30 ||1957 || Viktor Korchnoi Semyon Furman |- | 31 ||1958 || Igor Georgyevich Rubel |- | 32 ||1959 || Boris Spassky |- | 33 ||1960 || Vladimir Vasilyevich Shishkin |- | 34 ||1961 || Boris Spassky Mark Taimanov |- | 35 ||1962 || Konstatin Mikhailovich Klaman |- | 36 ||1963 || Boris Timofeyevich Vladimirov |- | 37 ||1964 || Viktor Korchnoi |- | 38 ||1965 || Vadim Zelmanovich Faibisovich |- | 39 ||1966 || Evgeny Ruban |- | 40 ||1967 ||Alexander Cherepkov |- | 41 ||1968 || Alexander Cherepkov |- | 42 ||1969 || Vadim Zelmanovich Faibisovich |- | 43 ||1970|| Vladimir Ivanovich Karasev |- | 44 ||1971 || Viacheslav Osnos |- | 45 ||1972 || Andrey Lukin |- | 46 ||1973 || Mark Taimanov |- | 47 ||1974 || Vladimir Ivanovich Karasev |- | 48 ||1975 || Mark Tseitlin |- | 49 ||1976 || Mark Tseitlin |- | 50 ||1977 || Vadim Zelmanovich Faibisovich |- | 51 ||1978 || Mark Tseitlin Andrey Lukin |- | 52 ||1979 || Igor Alexeyevich Polovodin |- | 53 ||1980 || Viacheslav Osnos |- | 54 ||1981 || Andrey Lukin |- | 55 ||1982 ||Alexander Cherepkov |- | 56 ||1983 || Andrey Lukin |- | 57 ||1984|| Leonid Yudasin |- | 58 ||1985 || Alex Yermolinsky Vladislav Vorotnikov |- | 59 ||1986 || Evgeniy Solozhenkin |- | 60 ||1987 || Vladimir Epishin |- | 61 ||1988 || Andrey Lukin |- | 62||1989 || Alexey Yuneev |- | 63||1990 || Konstantin Sakaev A. Ivanov |- | 64||1991 || Sergey Ivanov |- | 65||1992 || Sergey Ivanov |- | 66||1993 || Vasily Yemelin |- | 67||1994 || Sergey Ivanov |- | 68||1995 || Peter Svidler |- | 69||1996 || Alexander Khalifman |- | 70||1997 || Alexander Khalifman |- | 71||1998 || Evgeniy Solozhenkin |- | 72||1999 || Evgeny Shaposhnikov |- | 73||2000 || Valery Loginov |- | 74||2001 || Valerij Popov |- | 75||2002 || Vasily Yemelin |- | 76 || 2003 || Denis Yevseev |- | 77 || 2004 || Valery Loginov |- | 78 || 2005 || Valery Loginov |- | 79 || 2006 || Valerij Popov |- | 80 || 2007 || Marat Makarov |- | 81 ||2008Held in February-March 2009: 81. Final St.Petersburg Men's Chmp. 2008 IT - NWAPA Rector Cup -. FIDE.|| Alexey Goganov"Aleksey Goganov Becomes St. Petersburg Champion". Russian Chess Federation. 2016-03-31 |- | 82 || 2009 || Maxim Matlakov |- | 83 || 2010 || Ildar Khairullin |- | 84 || 2011 || Vasily Yemelin |- | 85 || 2012 || Aleksandr Shimanov |- | 86 || 2013 || Denis Yevseev |- | 87 || 2014 || Denis Yevseev on tiebreak over Valerij Popov |- | 88 || 2015 || Alexey Zenzera |- | 89 || 2016 || Alexey Goganov |- | 90 || 2017 || Evgeny Alekseev |- | 91 || 2018 || Sergei LobanovTournament report May 2018. St. Petersburg 91st Championship_Final. FIDE. |- | 92 || 2019 || Evgeny A. Levin Tournament report May 2019. St. Petersburg 92nd Championship, Final. FIDE.
Notes
References (results through 1985) Champions of Leningrad (results up until 2002) Winnerslist from ruschess (up until 1997) RUSBASE, part V The 71st Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 72nd Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 73rd Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 74th Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 75th Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 76th Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 77th Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 78th Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 79th Championship of Saint-Petersburg The 80th Championship of Saint-Petersburg 82nd St Petersburg Championship
84th ch-St Petersburg 85th St Petersburg Championship 2012 86th ch-St Petersburg