Editing World Chess Championship (section)

====Before 1851====
[[File:Jean Henri Marlet Das berühmte Schachspiel zwischen Howard Staunton und Pierre Charles Fourrier Saint-Amant 1843.jpg|thumbnail|right|A depiction of the chess match between [[Howard Staunton]] and [[Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant|Pierre Saint-Amant]], on 16 December 1843]]

The game of chess in its modern form emerged in Spain in the 15th century, though rule variations persisted until the late 19th century. Before [[Wilhelm Steinitz]] and [[Johannes Zukertort]] in the late 19th century, no chess player seriously claimed to be champion of the world. The phrase was used by some chess writers to describe other players of their day, and the status of being the best at the time has sometimes been awarded in retrospect, going back to the early 17th-century Italian player [[Gioachino Greco]] (the first player where complete games survive).<ref name=hendriks/> Richard Lambe, in his 1764 book ''The History of Chess'', wrote that the 18th-century French player [[François-André Danican Philidor]] was "supposed to be the best Chess-player in the world".<ref name=early>{{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | title=Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion' | first=Edward | last=Winter | access-date=19 January 2022 | archive-date=13 November 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113172956/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Philidor wrote an extremely successful chess book (''Analyse du jeu des Échecs'') and gave public demonstrations of his blindfold chess skills.<ref name=murray1>"A History of Chess", [[H. J. R. Murray]], pp. 863–865</ref> However, some of Philidor's contemporaries were not convinced by the analysis Philidor gave in his book (e.g. the [[Modenese Masters]]), and some more recent authors have echoed these doubts.<ref>"A History of Chess", H. J. R. Murray, p. 870</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/silman.html |title=Jeremy Silman (1954-2023) |last=Winter |first=Edward |date=22 September 2023 |website=chesshistory.com |publisher= |access-date=7 October 2023 |quote= |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928144605/https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/silman.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=hendriks>{{cite book |last=Hendriks |first=Willy |author-link= |date=2020 |title=On the Origin of Good Moves: A Skeptic's Guide to Getting Better at Chess |url= |location= |publisher=New in Chess |chapter=1. Footnotes to Greco; 2. The Nimzowitsch of the 17th century; 3. With a little help from the opponent |isbn=978-90-5691-879-8 |quote= Most books on the history of chess make a leap of a century after Greco and go directly to the Frenchman François André Danican Philidor (1726-1795). Although a few things happened in-between, he was the next player considered to stand head and shoulders above his contemporaries. ... However, I do not know how well acquainted Philidor was with Greco's games. He didn't have a high opinion of them, because Greco 'achieved the win in his games often in a risky way and only thanks to mistakes made by the opponent, without ever drawing the attention of the reader to these errors on both sides.' But as we will shortly see, one might argue that Philidor himself was even more outstanding at this 'technique'.}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align             = left
| total_width       = 350
| image1            = André Philidor.jpg
| caption1          = [[François-André Danican Philidor]], reputed to be the best player of the late eighteenth century<ref name=early/>
| image2            = Alexandre Deschapelles.png
| caption2          = [[Alexandre Deschapelles]], reputed to be the best player in the early nineteenth century<ref name=murray2/>
}}
In the early 19th century, it was generally considered that the French player [[Alexandre Deschapelles]] was the strongest player of the time, though three games between him and the English player [[William Lewis (chess player)|William Lewis]] in 1821 suggests that they were on par.<ref name=murray2>"A History of Chess", H. J. R. Murray, p. 878: "It was, however, generally accepted that Deschapelles was the strongest player of his time, and Sarratt appears to have acquiesced in this opinion, although there was apparently no stronger reason for it than the fact that the general standard of French chess had been higher than that of English chess in the end of the eighteenth century. The result of Lewis's visit was to show that there was very little, if any, difference in strength between Deschapelles and himself."</ref> After Deschapelles and Lewis withdrew from play, the strongest players from France and England respectively were recognised as [[Louis de la Bourdonnais]] and [[Alexander McDonnell (chess player)|Alexander McDonnell]]. La Bourdonnais visited England in 1825, where he played many games against Lewis and won most of them, and defeated all the other English masters despite offering [[chess handicap|handicaps]].<ref>David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', Oxford University Press, 1992 (2nd edition), p.56. {{ISBN|0-19-866164-9}}.</ref> He and McDonnell contested [[La Bourdonnais – McDonnell chess matches|a long series of matches in 1834]]. These were the first to be adequately reported,<ref name=murray3>"A History of Chess", H. J. R. Murray, pp. 882–5</ref> and they somewhat resemble the later world championship matches. Approximately 85 games (the true number is up for historical debate) were played,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Golombek |first=Harry |title=A History of Chess |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |year=1976 |isbn=0-7100-8266-5 |location=London |pages=126}}</ref> with La Bourdonnais winning a majority of the games.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=George |title=Chess and Chess-Players |publisher=C.J. Skeet |year=1850 |location=London |pages=381}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align             = right
| total_width       = 350
| image1            = Louisdelabourdonnais.jpg
| caption1          = [[Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais|Louis de la Bourdonnais]], the world's strongest player from 1821 to his death in 1840
| image2            = HowardStaunton.jpg
| caption2          = [[Howard Staunton]], generally reckoned the world's leading player of the 1840s<ref>David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', Oxford University Press, 1992 (2nd edition), p.390. {{ISBN|0-19-866164-9}}.</ref>
}}

In 1839, [[George Walker (chess player)|George Walker]] wrote "The sceptre of chess, in Europe, has been for the last century, at least, wielded by a Gallic dynasty. It has passed from [[Legall de Kermeur|Legalle]] [Philidor's teacher, whom Philidor regarded as being a player equal to himself, according to Deschapelles]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rJcCAAAAYAAJ&dq=bernard+carlier&pg=PA115 F. M. Edge, ''The exploits and triumphs, in Europe, of Paul Morphy'', 1859 page 115]</ref> to La Bourdonnais, through the grasp, successively, of Philidor, Bernard, Carlier [two members of ''[[La Société des Amateurs]]''], and Deschapelles".<ref>{{cite book |last=Walker |first=George |author-link= |date=1850 |title=Chess and Chess-Players |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcsCAAAAYAAJ |location= |publisher=Charles J. Skeet |page=38 |isbn=}}</ref> In 1840, a columnist in ''[[Fraser's Magazine]]'' (who was probably Walker) wrote, "Will Gaul continue the dynasty by placing a fourth Frenchman on the throne of the world? the three last chess chiefs having been successively Philidor, Deschapelles, and De La Bourdonnais."<ref name="Spinrad2006EarlyWorldRankings">{{cite web | url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad06.pdf | title=Early World Rankings | author=Jeremy P. Spinrad | publisher=Chess Cafe | access-date=6 June 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625170732/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad06.pdf | archive-date=25 June 2008 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | journal=Fraser's Magazine | title=The Café de la Régence | author=G.W. | volume=22 | date=July–December 1840 | url=http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw01h01/chw-1h01.htm | access-date=6 June 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615135833/http://mark_weeks.tripod.com/chw01h01/chw-1h01.htm | archive-date=15 June 2008 | url-status=live }} Jeremy Spinrad believes the author was [[George Walker (chess player)|George Walker]].</ref>

After La Bourdonnais' death in December 1840,<ref>[http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft438nb2b6/ Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill, and Self-Promotion in Paris during the Age of Revolution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512053011/http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft438nb2b6/ |date=12 May 2008 }}. Paul Metzner, Berkeley: University of California Press, c. 1998.</ref> Englishman [[Howard Staunton]]'s match victory over another Frenchman, [[Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant]], in 1843 is considered to have established Staunton as the world's strongest player,<ref>"From Morphy to Fischer", [[Israel Horowitz]], (Batsford, 1973) p.3</ref><ref name="Spinrad2006EarlyWorldRankings" /> at least in England and France. By the 1830s, players from Germany and more generally Central Europe were beginning to appear on the scene:<ref name=murray3/> the strongest of the Berlin players around 1840 was probably [[Ludwig Bledow]], co-founder of the [[Berlin Pleiades]].<ref>David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', Oxford University Press, 1992 (2nd edition), p.44. {{ISBN|0-19-866164-9}}.</ref> The earliest recorded use of the term "World Champion" was in 1845, when Staunton was described as "the Chess Champion of England, or&nbsp;... the Champion of the World".<ref>The Earl of Mexborough's speech to the meeting of Yorkshire Chess Clubs, as reported in the 1845 ''Chess Player's Chronicle'' (with the cover date 1846) – {{cite web | url=http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | title=Early Uses of 'World Chess Champion' | first=Edward | last=Winter | access-date=6 June 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113172956/http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/champion.html | archive-date=13 November 2013 | url-status=live }}</ref>