51 Facts About Howard Staunton

Howard Staunton was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant.

Howard Staunton was the principal organiser of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player.

Howard Staunton's chess articles and books were widely read and encouraged the development of chess in the United Kingdom, and his Chess-Players' Handbook was a reference for decades.

The chess openings the English Opening and Howard Staunton Gambit were named for his advocacy of them.

Howard Staunton has been a controversial figure since his own time, and his chess writings could be spiteful.

In 1836, Howard Staunton came to London, where he took out a subscription for William Greenwood Walker's Games at Chess, actually played in London, by the late Alexander McDonnell Esq.

Howard Staunton was apparently twenty-six when he took a serious interest in chess.

Howard Staunton said that at that time the strongest players he saw in London, Saint-Amant and George Walker, could easily have given him rook odds.

Howard Staunton then became chess editor of the magazine British Miscellany, and his chess column developed into a separate magazine, the Chess Player's Chronicle, which Staunton owned and edited until the early 1850s.

Early in 1843 Howard Staunton prevailed in a long series of games against John Cochrane, a strong player and chess theoretician.

Howard Staunton took Thomas Worrall and Harry Wilson to Paris as his assistants; this is the first known case where seconds were used in a match.

Saint-Amant wanted a third match, but Howard Staunton was initially unwilling as he had developed heart palpitations during the second match.

Von der Lasa later suggested this was why Howard Staunton faded in the second match.

In 1845 Howard Staunton began a chess column for The Illustrated London News, which became the most influential chess column in the world and which he continued for the rest of his life.

Howard Staunton took a long-term interest in this solution to the difficulties of travel, and reported telegraph games in The Illustrated London News.

In 1847 Howard Staunton published his most famous work, The Chess-Player's Handbook, which is still in print.

Howard Staunton's Handbook was based on Bilguer and von der Lasa's Handbuch des Schachspiels, but enhanced by many variations and analyses of Howard Staunton's own.

Howard Staunton still found time for two matches in 1846, comfortably beating the professionals Bernhard Horwitz and Daniel Harrwitz.

The match against Harrwitz was set up in a very unusual way: seven games in which Howard Staunton gave Harrwitz odds of pawn and two moves, seven games where he gave pawn and move, and seven at no odds.

On 23 July 1849, Howard Staunton married Frances Carpenter Nethersole, who had had eight children by a previous marriage.

Howard Staunton advertised the new set in his Illustrated London News chess column, pointing out that the pieces were easily identifiable, very stable, and good-looking.

Howard Staunton proposed and then took the lead in organising the first ever international tournament, as he thought the Great Exhibition of 1851 presented a unique opportunity, because the difficulties that obstructed international participation would be greatly reduced.

Howard Staunton proposed the production of a compendium showing what was known about chess openings, preferably as a table.

Adolf Anderssen was at first deterred by the travel costs, but accepted his invitation when Howard Staunton offered to pay Anderssen's travel expenses out of his own pocket if necessary.

In 1852 Howard Staunton published his book The Chess Tournament, which recounted in detail the efforts required to make the London International Tournament happen and presented all the games with his comments on the play.

Anderssen accepted the challenge but the match could not be arranged: Howard Staunton was physically unfit for an immediate contest, and Anderssen had to return to work.

Carl Jaenisch had arrived too late for the tournament; Howard Staunton convincingly won a match with him soon after.

Later in 1851 Howard Staunton played a match against Elijah Williams, who had won their play-off for third place in the London International tournament.

Howard Staunton won more games but lost the match because he had given Williams a three-game start.

Howard Staunton was unfit to continue because of heart palpitations, which had affected him in the second match against Saint-Amant in 1843.

Howard Staunton replied, thanking the New Orleans Chess Club and Morphy "for the honor implied in your selection of me as the opponent of such a champion" and pointing out that he had not competed for several years and was working six days a week, and that he could not possibly travel across the Atlantic for a match.

Howard Staunton did offer to play Morphy by electric telegraph, a technology whose progress and uses for chess he reported enthusiastically.

At first, Howard Staunton declined Morphy's offer saying that the challenge came too late.

JR Murray wrote that Howard Staunton had overexerted himself and damaged his health by trying both to get ahead of schedule on the Shakespeare project and to play some competitive chess.

Just before Howard Staunton left London for Birmingham, his old enemy George Walker had published an article accusing him of trying to delay the match indefinitely, and Howard Staunton received another letter from Morphy pressing him to name a date for the match.

Howard Staunton continued writing the chess column in The Illustrated London News until his death in 1874, greeting new developments with enthusiasm.

Five years later Howard Staunton published Great Schools of England, whose main subject was the history of major English public schools but which presented some progressive ideas: Learning can only take place successfully if the active interest of the student is engaged; corporal punishment is to be avoided and fagging should be abolished.

Howard Staunton has been a controversial figure ever since his own time.

Many players immediately associate his name with Paul Morphy, as in 'Howard Staunton ducked a match with Morphy'.

Nevertheless, all said and done, Howard Staunton was, as we have often heard a distinguished enemy of his say, emphatically a man.

Howard Staunton was more theorist than player, but nonetheless he was the strongest player of his day.

Howard Staunton had a highly volatile relationship with George Walker, the founder of the London Chess Club, a dedicated populariser of chess, and one of Howard Staunton's earliest supporters.

Chess journalism could be a bruising business in those days, even when Howard Staunton was not involved.

However it does seem that Howard Staunton was involved in more than his fair share of chess disputes.

JR Murray suggested that these frequent wars of words may have originated from leading players' and commentators' jealousy over Howard Staunton's unexpected rise to the top in the early 1840s, and from snobbish disdain about his humble and possibly illegitimate birth.

Howard Staunton was sometimes an objective chess commentator: A large percentage of his 1860 book Chess Praxis was devoted to Morphy's games, which he praised highly; and in The Chess-Player's Companion Howard Staunton sometimes criticised his own play, and presented a few of his losses.

Around 1888 Howard Staunton's Chess: Theory and Practice, published posthumously in 1876, was regarded as modern in most respects, but there was a growing need for more up-to-date analysis of openings.

Howard Staunton's play had little influence on other players of the day.

Similarly, although Howard Staunton was an early champion of the Sicilian Defense, which is today the most popular opening, and the most successful response to 1.

Howard Staunton analysed a different gambit approach to the Dutch, 2.

In 1979 Viktor Korchnoi, one of the world's leading players, successfully introduced this line into top-class competition, but later authorities concluded, as Howard Staunton had, that Black gets a good game with 2.