Editing Howard Staunton (section)

===1843, competitive peak===
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|The [[English Opening]], named for Staunton's use of it against [[Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant|Saint-Amant]]}}

Early in 1843 Staunton prevailed in a long series of games against [[John Cochrane (chess player)|John Cochrane]], a strong player and [[chess theoretician]].<ref name="ScoresRomanticEra"/> [[Chessmetrics]] treats these games incorrectly as one match when it was in fact a series of matches, and lists it as Staunton's best performance.<ref name="chessmetricsProfileStaunton">
{{cite web
 | title=Chessmetrics Player Profile: Howard Staunton
 | url=http://chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PlayerProfile.asp?Params=199510SSSSS3S125695000000121000000000028210100
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}}
</ref>

A little later that year he lost a short match (2½–3½) in London against the visiting French player [[Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant|Saint-Amant]], who was generally regarded as the world's strongest active player.<ref name="storiascacchiMatchesTo1849"/><ref name="Fine1952WorldsGreatChessGames">Fine 1951</ref>

Staunton challenged Saint-Amant to a longer match to be played in Paris for a stake of £100, {{Inflation|UK|100|1843|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}.{{efn|Conversion is based on prices. If conversion is based on average income, the result is about £80,000.<ref>{{cite web
 | title=Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.K. Pound Amount, 1270 to Present
 | url=https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/result.php?year_source=1843&amount=100&year_result=2019
 | access-date=6 May 2021}}
</ref>}} Then he prepared new [[Chess opening|opening]] lines, especially those beginning 1.c4, which became known as the [[English Opening]] after this match.<ref name="Murray1908Staunton"/> He also took Thomas Worrall and Harry Wilson to Paris as his assistants;<ref name="chesscafeCaptainWilliamEvans"/> this is the first known case where [[List of chess terms#Second|seconds]] were used in a match.<ref name="WallStaunton"/> Staunton gained a seven-game lead but then struggled to keep it before winning the match 13–8 (eleven wins, four draws, and six losses) in December 1843.<ref name="batgirlStaunton">{{cite web
 | title=Howard Staunton
 | publisher=batgirl
 | url=http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Staunton.html
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 | author=Weeks, Mark 
 | title=World Chess Championship: 1843 Staunton – Saint-Amant Matches
 | url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/u3ss$mix.htm
 | access-date=24 June 2008
}}
</ref>

Saint-Amant wanted a third match, but Staunton was initially unwilling as he had developed [[heart palpitations]] during the second match. [[Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa|Von der Lasa]] later suggested this was why Staunton faded in the second match.<ref name="HardingLondonChessMagazine2"/> However, after a long, difficult negotiation, which he reported in the ''Chess Player's Chronicle'',<ref name="WinterChessNote4767">
{{cite web
 | author=Winter, E.G.  |author-link=Edward Winter (chess historian)
 | title=Chess Note 4767 Copyright
 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter29.html#4767._Copyright
 | access-date=19 June 2008
}}
</ref> Staunton went to Paris intending to start their third match in October&nbsp;1844, but he caught [[pneumonia]] while travelling and almost died; the match was postponed and never took place.<ref name="Murray1908Staunton"/>

Several modern commentators regard Staunton as ''de facto'' World Champion after his match victory over Saint-Amant, although that title did not yet formally exist.{{efn|Several authors concur on Staunton's status as world champion:<br/>
* Hooper and Whyld refer to Staunton as "the world's leading player in the 1840s". {{cite book
 | author1=Hooper, D. | author-link=David Vincent Hooper
 | author2=Whyld, K.  | author-link2=Kenneth Whyld
 | year=1992
 | title=[[The Oxford Companion to Chess]]
 | edition=2nd
 | page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000hoop/page/390 390]
 | publisher=Oxford University Press
 | isbn=0-19-866164-9
}}
* {{cite book
 | author=Golombek, H. | author-link=Harry Golombek
 | year=1976
 | title=Chess: A History
 | pages=129–130
 | publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons
}}
* {{cite book
 | author1=Saidy, A.   | author1-link=Anthony Saidy
 | author2=Lessing, N. | author2-link=Norman Lessing
 | year=1974
 | title=The World of Chess
 | publisher=Random House
 | page=[https://archive.org/details/worldofchess00said/page/85 85]
 | isbn=0-394-48777-X
 | url=https://archive.org/details/worldofchess00said/page/85
}}
*{{cite book
 | author=Soltis, Andy  | author-link=Andrew Soltis
 | year=1975
 | title=The Great Chess Tournaments and their Stories
 | page=2
 | publisher=Chilton Book Company
 | isbn=0-8019-6138-6
}}
* {{cite book
 | title=Grandmasters of Chess
 | author=Schonberg, Harold C. | author-link=Harold Schonberg
 | year=1973
 | publisher=J.B. Lippincott
 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/grandmastersofch00haro/page/50 50–51]
 | isbn=0-397-01004-4
 | url=https://archive.org/details/grandmastersofch00haro/page/50
}}
* {{cite book
 | author=Fine, R.
 | year=1965  |orig-year=1948 
 | title=Great Moments in Modern Chess
 | pages=3–4
 | publisher=Dover Publications
 | isbn=0-486-21449-4
}} originally published in 1948 by David McKay as ''The World's a Chessboard''.
* {{cite book
 | author=Horowitz, I.A.  | author-link=Israel Horowitz
 | year=1973
 | title=The World Chess Championship – A History
 | publisher=Macmillan
 | page=[https://archive.org/details/worldchesschampi00horo/page/3 3]
 | lccn=72080175 |oclc=604994
 | url=https://archive.org/details/worldchesschampi00horo
 | url-access=registration
}}
}} After Saint-Amant's defeat, no other Frenchmen arose to continue the French supremacy in chess established by [[François-André Danican Philidor|Philidor]], [[Alexandre Deschapelles|Deschapelles]], [[Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais|La Bourdonnais]] and Saint-Amant.<ref>
{{cite web
 |author      = Weeks, Mark 
 |title       = The French School of Chess (18th/19th cent.)
 |url         = http://chess.about.com/od/history/p/aa05h27.htm
 |access-date = 24 June 2008 |url-status = dead
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080704021127/http://chess.about.com/od/history/p/aa05h27.htm
 |archive-date= 4 July 2008 |df = dmy
}}
</ref> Some contemporary English commentators, mainly in Staunton's ''Chess Player's Chronicle'', and some later writers hailed Staunton as the [[World Chess Championship|world champion]].{{efn|The Earl of Mexborough's speech to the meeting of Yorkshire Chess Clubs, reported in the 1845 ''Chess Player's Chronicle'' (with the cover date 1846); the ''Brighton Gazette'' and a letter from Edward Cronhelm, both in ''Chess Player's Chronicle'' 1851.<br/>All presented at<ref>{{cite web
 | author=Winter, E.G. |author-link=Edward Winter (chess historian)
 | title=Early uses of ''World Chess Champion''
 | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html
 | access-date=6 June 2008
}}<br/>
::from
{{cite magazine
 |title=[title not cited]
 |year=1851  |orig-year=1846
 |magazine=Chess Player's Chronicle
 |volume=5 |pages=92 & 128
}}
</ref>}}<ref name="Murray1908Staunton"/>{{efn|
According to [[Philip W. Sergeant]], Staunton after his victory over Saint-Amant, was generally regarded in England as the world champion.<ref>
{{cite book
 | author=Sergeant, P.  | author-link=Philip W. Sergeant
 | year=1934
 | title=A Century of British Chess
 | publisher=David McKay
}}</ref>{{rp|page=&nbsp;56}}<br/>
Sergeant expressed his concurrence with this assessment by stating
:"By his victory over Saint-Amant ... Staunton may fairly be held to have become unofficial chess champion of the world".{{rp|page=&nbsp;57}}
}}

The response was less enthusiastic elsewhere in Europe. Even in England some writers suggested other players, notably [[Henry Thomas Buckle|Buckle]] or [[von der Lasa]], were stronger.<ref>
Letter from [[Ludwig Bledow|Bledow]] to [[von der Lasa]], written in 1846 and published in the ''Deutsche Schachzeitung'' in 1848;<br/>
George Walker in ''Bell's Life''.<br/>
::quoted at
{{cite web
 | author=Spinrad, Jeremy 
 | title=Early World Rankings
 | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad06.pdf
 | access-date=8 June 2008
}}
</ref>