Up until the 15th century, chess was basically a pastime for the upper classes. Games tended to be very long also because the queen and bishops tended to have moments limited to a few squares. When a change in this sense was introduced, chess took on a much more complex and strategic value, and each game became a true intellectual competition. The first tournaments began to be organized and in 1834 the first known international championship was played, between the Briton Alexander McDonnel and the Frenchman Louis-Charles de la Bourdonnais. The latter became the first world chess champion, although the official title had not yet been established.
He was succeeded by the British Howard Staunton, who played a very important role in standardizing the pieces and rules of the game and who promoted chess internationally. The Staunton pieces, one of the most used chess pieces in competitions, take their name from him. Howard Staunton began playing chess at the age of 26 in London and among his opponents was William Evans, the inventor of the famous Evans Gambit. In 1851, on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition in London, he organized what he intended to be the World Chess Championship and which he hoped to win. However, he was defeated by the German Adolf Anderssen, who won the tournament (Staunton finished fourth behind Wyvill and Williams). In 1858 he was challenged publicly by the American champion Paul Morphy, but he carefully avoided the confrontation, citing his commitment to Shakespearean studies as a pretext. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London; in 1997 a statue reproducing a chess horse was placed above his grave. About my blog I will create a club called Luca-2011's Blog Club where I will tell my next articles but above all where you can give me valuable advice to write other blog articles. I wait for you.
