London 1851 chess tournament
Adolf Anderssen of Germany won the sixteen-player tournament, earning him the status of the best player in the world.
Howard Staunton proposed and then took the lead in organizing the first ever international tournament, to be held at the same time.
[8] Staunton and his colleagues had ambitious objectives for this tournament, including convening a "Chess Parliament" to: complete the standardization of the moves and other rules, as there were still very small national differences and a few self-contradictions; to standardize chess notation; to agree time limits, as many players were notorious for simply "out-sitting" opponents.
Since he thought there would not be time for a single "Chess Parliament" session to handle this as well, he suggested further congresses, some perhaps including knowledgeable enthusiasts of below top-class playing strength, and a review process for dealing with contentious issues and possible mistakes in earlier decisions.
From France, collections were made at the Café de la Régence, and from India, the Calcutta Chess Club contributed £100, and in addition its principal officers John Cochrane and T.C.
Invitations had been extended to foreign masters Vincent Grimm, József Szén, and Johann Löwenthal from Hungary; Adolf Anderssen, Bernhard Horwitz, Carl Mayet, and von der Lasa from Germany; Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant and Lionel Kieseritzky from France, and Carl Jaenisch, Alexander Petrov and Ilya Shumov from Russia.
The pairings were made by chance, i.e. there was no seeding system of the type commonly used in tennis tournaments.
Staunton suffered a bitter defeat to Williams in the last round consolation match to finish a disappointing fourth.
[3][9] As provided by the rules of the tournament,[4] Staunton immediately challenged Anderssen to a twenty-one-game match for a £100 stake.
[3][5] As a result of winning this tournament Anderssen was popularly recognised as Europe's best player, although as far as is known he was never described as "world champion".
[17] Staunton blamed his poor showing on the strain of his duties in organising the tournament, and also thought that he suffered from a weak heart since an illness in 1844.
It is because its true character has been lost sight of by the zealous or the mercenary, that victory at any cost has become a more important object than the advancement of the science.At least in part, this was the complaint of an ungracious loser, as most of Staunton's income was derived from his skill at chess.
[4] By this time Staunton was also a successful scholar with a long-term contract to produce editions of Shakespeare's plays.
[18] Staunton is generally regarded as having been the leading world player from 1843 until this tournament, due to his 1843 match victory against Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant.
According to Chessmetrics, five of the top eight players in the world were present:[20] Kieseritzky (1), Williams (3), Löwenthal (4), Anderssen (6) and Mayet (8); and the highest ranked player not present was Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, who had won a match against Anderssen earlier in 1851.
