La Bourdonnais–McDonnell chess matches

[3] De La Bourdonnais was considered the world's leading player from 1821, when he surpassed his mentor Alexandre Deschapelles.

Between June and October 1834 La Bourdonnais and McDonnell played a series of six matches, a total of eighty-five games, at the Westminster Chess Club in London.

The games were recorded for posterity by the club's elderly founder William Greenwood Walker, who remained by McDonnell's side for almost the entire duration of the match.

It is said that the only word they exchanged during their historic encounter was "check!” After each game, McDonnell would return to his room exhausted, where he would spend hours pacing back and forth in a state of nervous agitation.

McDonnell and La Bourdonnais were evenly matched in their abilities across the board, but wildly contrasted in their styles of play.

Where the Frenchman preferred to err on the side of caution, the Irishman could not resist embarking on wild and often ill-considered attacks, something which told against him during their encounter.

When winning, he grew talkative and affable; but when things went against him, he "swore tolerably round oaths in a pretty audible voice", as Walker recorded.

In the first match of the series McDonnell's lack of big-match experience told against him and he was heavily defeated by sixteen games to five, with four draws (+5 -16 =4).

Another story suggests that La Bourdonnais gave McDonnell odds of a three-game lead, with the first player to reach eight victories being declared the winner, but this is unlikely and impossible to confirm.