Trivia

Concentration Trophy:  The trophy for the 3rd Howard Staunton Memorial tournament held in London in 2005 was a chess set which had been used by a Polish player named Sabkowski who was interned in five different concentration camps during World War Two.  He settled in England after the war ended.

Wandering Queen:  British player Jana Malypetrova won the British championship under her maiden name, as well as when she was married to Bill Hartson (1977) and Tony Miles (1979).  She is currently married to Robert Bellin.

New Technology:  When the new Australian Federal Parliament building was opened in the capital city of Canberra in May 1927, a 6-board wireless chess match to celebrate the opening of the building was held between teams representing the British House of Commons and the Australian Parliament.  The slowness of the service meant that very few moves were made in any of the games, and the match was abandoned after several hours.  It would not be until after World War 2 that the telegraph service between Australia and the rest of the world would be quick enough to make similar matches a reality.

New Technology vs Old:  Prior to his opening round match against Lev Aronian at the 2005 FIDE World Cup in Siberia, Egyptian player Ali Frhat requested that he be allowed to play with plastic pieces, as he had never played games with the wooden pieces being used in the tournament.  The tournament director refused his request, as it was necessary to use the wooden pieces so that the games could be relayed on the Internet.