The fifth part of this series deals with Howard Staunton (1810 - 1874). After the legendary duel between De La Bourdonnais and McDonnell, which McDonnell lost, Howard Staunton took revenge for the British players by defeating the French Master De Saint Amant, in the lion's den, the famous Café de la Régence in Paris.
Staunton was not only a strong player, he was also the editor of 'The Chessplayer's Chronicle'. In 1848 he lent his name to a new design of chess pieces, the 'Staunton format', which quickly became popular and is still the standard today.
Staunton was also the initiator and main organiser of the London Tournament 1851, the first official international tournament.
Staunton also contributed to the development of chess theory. He advocated the move 1.c2-c4 which, thanks to his contributions, is now known as the English Opening. The Staunton Gambit in the Dutch (1.d4 f5 2.e4!?) is directly named after him.
The position shown in the diagram below is from a game between Saint Amant and Staunton. Staunton played 31...Qd7!, sacrificing the exchange on c4, a kind of sacrifice that would later become standard in grandmaster practice.
In the video we show a famous, very similar example from the eleventh game of the 1969 World Championship match between Boris Spassky and Tigran Petrosian.
Can you explain why Staunton's sacrifice is fully justified?
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