London Classic

To celebrate the London Classic, which starts at Olympia this Saturday, I shall be paying a series of homages to illuminati of the game who have achieved great things in London. I kick off with Howard Staunton, who won the equivalent of World Championship matches against the German masters Harrwitz and Horwitz in London and who also founded the first ever international tournament in the capital in 1851. The winner of that inaugural event was another German, Adolf Anderssen, who won probably the most celebrated game of all time, for which see this week’s puzzle.

For information on the London Classic see londonchessclassic.com.

Staunton-Horwitz; London 1851; Dutch Defence

1 c4 e6 2 Nc3 f5 3 g3 Nf6 4 Bg2 c6 5 d3 Na6 6 a3 Be7 7 e3 0‑0 8 Nge2 Nc7 9 0‑0 d5 10 b3 Qe8 11 Bb2 Qf7 12 Rc1 Bd7 13 e4! This central thrust announces that White has won the battle of the opening. 13 … fxe4 14 dxe4 Rad8 15 e5 Nfe8 16 f4 dxc4 17 bxc4 Bc5+ 18 Kh1 Be3 19 Rb1 g6 An unnecessary weakening of f6 from which Staunton soon profits. 20 Qb3 Bc8 21 Ne4 Bb6 (see diagram 1) 22 Rbd1 Even more powerful, in fact, would have been 22 c5 Ba5 23 Nd6. As played, Black’s defence is granted a glimmer of hope. 22 … Na6 23 Qc3 Rxd1 24 Rxd1 Nc5 25 Nd6 Qc7 26 Qc2 Ng7 27 g4 The prelude to the decisive attack, in which Staunton’s pieces stream across to the right-hand side of the board to menace the black king. First of all, Staunton restricts the possibilities of Black’s defensive knight on g7. 27 … Qe7 28 Bd4 Qc7 29 a4 Na6 30 c5 Ba5 31 Qb3 b6 32 Ne4 bxc5 If instead 32 … Nxc5 33 Bxc5 bxc5 34 Nf6+ Kh8 35 Qh3 Ne8 36 Rd7! winning the black queen since 36 … Bxd7 fails to 37 Qxh7 checkmate.