Editing Howard Staunton (section)

===Playing strength and style===
[[File:Jean Henri Marlet Das berühmte Schachspiel zwischen Howard Staunton und Pierre Charles Fourrier Saint-Amant 1843.jpg|thumbnail|A depiction of the chess match between Howard Staunton and Pierre Charles Fourrier Saint-Amant, on 16&nbsp;December 1843]]
There is a famous story that [[Paul Morphy]] described Staunton as the author of "some devilish bad games". Chess historian [[Edward Winter (chess historian)|Edward Winter]] traced this back to a book published in 1902, whose author said he had seen a copy of Staunton's ''The Chess Tournament'' in which Morphy had written "some devilish bad games" on the title page; Winter was unable to trace the copy.<ref>
{{cite web
 | author=Winter, E.G.  |author-link=Edward Winter (chess historian)
 | date=3 July 2007
| title=Unsolved chess mysteries
 | series=Edward Winter presents
 | volume=9
 | url=http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3972
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}} The book was {{cite book
 | author=Buck, C.A.
 | year=1902
 | title=Paul Morphy: His later life
 | publisher=Will. H. Lyons
 | location=Newport, Kentucky
 | url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Paul_Morphy:_His_Later_Life
 | access-date=11 July 2008
}}
</ref> Around the time of Staunton's death, Morphy is said to have commented that Staunton may have been the strongest player of his time, had great analytical ability and judgement of positions, but lacked the imagination required to deliberately create opportunities for [[combination (chess)|combinations]].<ref name="Lawson1976MorphyOnStaunton">
{{cite book
 | author=Lawson, D.
 | year=1976
 | title=Paul Morphy: The pride and the sorrow of chess
 | publisher=David McKay
 | isbn=0-679-13044-6
 | url=http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Morphy_on_Staunton.html
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}}</ref>

Twentieth-century opinions of Staunton's play varied enormously. [[Fred Reinfeld]], [[Israel Albert Horowitz|Al Horowitz]], and [[Reuben Fine]] all condemned it.<ref>"It takes too much time to find a game by him which one can ''enjoy''."<br/> 
:{{cite book
 | author=Reinfeld, F. | author-link=Fred Reinfeld
 | year=1950
 | title=A Treasury of British Chess Masterpieces
 | page=v
 | publisher=Bell Publishing
}}
"...&nbsp;it is just too incredible that anyone seemingly so weak as [Staunton] could have achieved such success&nbsp;..."<br/>
:{{cite book
 | author=Horowitz, I.A.  |author-link=Israel Albert Horowitz
 | year=1973
 | title=The World Chess Championship – A History
 | page=[https://archive.org/details/worldchesschampi00horo/page/3 3]
 | publisher=Macmillan
 | lccn=72080175 |oclc=604994
 | url=https://archive.org/details/worldchesschampi00horo
 | url-access=registration
}}
:{{cite book
 | author=Fine, R.
 | year=1952
 | title=The World's Great Chess Games
 | pages=11–12
 | publisher=Andre Deutsch
}}
</ref>
In his book The World of Chess, [[Anthony Saidy]] refused to reprint a single Staunton game and said his style of play was mostly about the acquisition of material rather than strategic or analytical brilliance.<ref>
:{{cite book
 | author=Saidy, Anthony
 | year=1974
 | title=The World of Chess
 | publisher=Random House
 | isbn=039448777X
}}
</ref>

On the other hand, [[Savielly Tartakower]] wrote, "A remarkable feature of Staunton's play is the number of ultra-modern ideas with which he was familiar, e.g. the restricted centre, the ''[[fianchetto]]'' development, bilateral work, the theory of the local engagement, etc., and, last but not least, the ''[[English Opening]]'' (sometimes called the ''Staunton Opening'')."<ref>
{{cite book
 | author1=Tartakower, S. 
 | author2=du&nbsp;Mont, J. 
 | year=1975
 | title=500 Master Games of Chess
 | page=[https://archive.org/details/500mastergamesof00tart/page/626 626]
 | publisher=Dover
 | isbn=0-486-23208-5
 | url=https://archive.org/details/500mastergamesof00tart/page/626
}}
</ref> [[Garry Kasparov]] considered Staunton "by the early 1840s ... superior to all his rivals".<ref>
{{cite book
 | author=Kasparov, G.  | author-link=Garry Kasparov
 | year=2003
 | title=[[My Great Predecessors]]
 | volume=Part&nbsp;I  | page=17
 | publisher=Everyman Chess
 | isbn=1-85744-330-6
}}
</ref> [[Bobby Fischer]] opined that "Staunton was the most profound opening analyst of all time. He was more theorist than player, but nonetheless he was the strongest player of his day ...&nbsp;. In addition, he understood all of the positional concepts which modern players hold dear, and thus – with Steinitz – must be considered the first modern player."<ref name="Fischer1964OnStaunton">
{{cite magazine
 | author=Fischer, R.J.  | author-link=Bobby Fischer
 | date=January–February 1964
 | title=The Ten Greatest Masters in History
 | magazine=Chessworld
 | pages=56, 58
}} Quoted in {{cite book
 | author=Kasparov, G.   | author-link=Garry Kasparov
 | year=2003
 | title=[[My Great Predecessors]]
 | volume=Part&nbsp;I  | page=21
 | publisher=Everyman Chess
 | isbn=1-85744-330-6
}}
</ref>

The website [[Chessmetrics]] ranks Staunton as world number one from May&nbsp;1843 to August&nbsp;1849, in the top ten from July&nbsp;1851 to May&nbsp;1853, and in the top five from June&nbsp;1853 to January&nbsp;1856.<ref name="ChessmetricsProfileStaunton">
{{cite web
 | title=Chessmetrics Player Profile: Howard Staunton
 | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S125695000000111000000000028210100
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}}
</ref>

From the early 1840s–1851 Staunton could successfully give [[chess handicap|odds]] to almost any UK-based player, including eventually [[John Cochrane (chess player)|John Cochrane]];<ref name="Murray1908Staunton"/>{{efn|name="chessOdds"}} the exceptions were [[Henry Thomas Buckle]], to whom Staunton gave [[List of chess terms#Pawn and move|pawn and move]] in 1843 and lost their match (6&nbsp;losses, no draws, 1&nbsp;win), and [[Elijah Williams (chess player)|Elijah Williams]] in 1851, against whom Staunton won more games, but lost the match because he had given Williams a 3-game start.<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra"/> According to match records collected by Jeremy P. Spinrad, the only players who were successful against Staunton without receiving odds from 1840 to 1852 were:
* [[Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant|Saint-Amant]], who won their first match in London in 1843 and lost their second, longer match in Paris the same year;
* [[Adolf Anderssen]], who eliminated Staunton from the [[London 1851 chess tournament|1851&nbsp;London International tournament]]; and
* [[Elijah Williams (chess player)|Elijah Williams]], who beat Staunton in the play-off for third place in the same tournament.<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra"/>

Before 1840 Staunton was still a relative beginner, and after 1851 his health was too fragile for serious competition. In the late 1840s some UK commentators wrote that Buckle was stronger, and [[Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa|von der Lasa]] was regarded by some as the world's best.<ref name="Spinrad2006EarlyWorldRankings"/> Staunton did not play von&nbsp;der Lasa until 1853, and was forced by ill-health to abandon the match.<ref name="Murray1908Staunton"/>

In his own time Staunton was regarded as belonging to the "closed" category of chess players (along with for example [[François-André Danican Philidor|Philidor]] and [[József Szén]]) rather than to the "heroic" category (which included [[Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais|La&nbsp;Bourdonnais]], Morphy, and Anderssen) – instead of seeking immediate combat, Staunton deferred it until he was ready.<ref name="Spinrad2006Bledow">
{{cite web
 | author=Spinrad, J.P.
 | title=Ludwig Erdmann Bledowc
 | publisher=chesscafe.com
 | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad11.pdf
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}}
</ref> The closed [[English Opening]] got its name from Staunton's frequent use of it, especially against Saint-Amant in 1843.<ref name="Murray1908Staunton"/><ref name="batgirlStaunton"/> However he was noted for the accuracy and incisiveness of his [[Combination (chess)|combinations]].<ref name="Lawson1976MorphyOnStaunton"/>