Who is @Howard Staunton? A chess mystery

A column on Twitter written by “ HowardStaunton” almost makes one believe in life after  death. I was forcibly drawn once again to perusing it, when the irrepressible author republished a caricature of Napoleon playing chess against King George III.

At first I attributed it instinctively to James Gillray, but on second thoughts it looks more likely to be from the pen of Rowlandson. Thomas Rowlandson quite often depicted Napoleon playing chess and by 1797 Gillray had been bought off by the British establishment to draw only pro government cartoons. This cartoon is definitely not supportive of the British Government.  

Boris Johnson allegedly claims descent from George III and it ’ s easy to transpose the rotund features of that 18th century monarch onto any one of numerous recent anti-Boris cartoons. One difference is that King George was never actually seen playing chess, whereas the Prime Minister has often been snapped while seated at a chess board. Napoleon himself, of course, was an enthusiastic player, as can be seen from my columns:  

Napoleon: the chess player  

Napoleon, Beethoven and the Turk

There  are,  indeed, many delights to be found on the social media platform Twitter. For a rollercoaster of Olympian fulminations, one could do worse than follow the tweets of President Donald Trump — before he was banned, that is. For finely crafted chess journalism in the classic style, Leonard Barden’s weekly contributions are a joy. CJ De Mooi, former ECF President, is always good value for money, as are the robust opinions of Nigel Short MBE, who has recently resigned as FIDÉ Vice-President.

But for those chess-playing admirers of Sherlock Holmes, who wish to practise their deductive and detective skills, one entertaining mystery looms larger than all other Twitter-related considerations, and that is: who is writing under the Twitter handle of @HowardStaunton?

The anonymous writer has advanced chess satire and wit to entirely new levels of excellence. Adopting the style, language and persona of the great Howard Staunton himself, @HowardStaunton revives belief in a second coming. A common theme is the ultracrepidarianism of famous chess players, too apt perhaps to pontificate on matters beyond chess and upon which their expertise is thin. A further running joke was @HowardStaunton’s proposal for a team to run FIDÉ. This included Howard Staunton as President, a number of 19th-century politicians as running mates, and myself as the only living member of the squad.

The great question now remains: who is actually writing this most amusing, erudite and pointed contribution to the chess literature of Twitter? I have been accused of being the anonymous author, but I have to (reluctantly) admit that I am not. I even invited the author, as what I considered to be an irresistible temptation, to lunch at Staunton’s old haunt, Simpson ’ s in the Strand. Simpson’s has been closed since the start of the pandemic, when Covid caused it to shut its doors, hopefully not forever.

Predictably, however, the invitation was declined. Further suspects included John Saunders and Steve Giddins. Both chessplaying writers possess the requisite trenchant wit and historical erudition, but both have convincingly denied authorship.

Who does that leave? The omniscient Ken Whyld is as dead as Staunton and the style does not seem to be that of chess historian Richard Eales or chess Autolycus, Edward Winter, nor indeed Barry Martin, General Secretary of The Staunton Society. One clue: It is likely that the writer is English, given the focus on Staunton.

I am now going to stick my neck out. Two eminent candidates who have not yet denied authorship are Jimmy Adams and Dr Tim Harding, though the latter is not known to be a huge Staunton fan. So, in order to get to the truth and unmask the genius behind @HowardStaunton, I now offer a champagne lunch at L ’ Escargot  , the new home of Brian Clivaz, formerly of Simpsons and maitre d ’ to several of the titans of British chess, to the first person who can convincingly demonstrate to me that they know the identity of the @HowardStaunton Twitter contributions.

And, whilst we ’ re talking about Staunton, here, amongst other chessboard masterpieces, follows one classic game against Horwitz played at the first international chess tournament (organised by Staunton himself), held in London in 1851. Staunton himself lived from 1810-1874. He was a Victorian polymath who, in modern terms, was not just de facto world chess champion and, in terms of rule-giving, President of FIDÉ combined, but also a great chess author, eminent Shakespearean scholar and possibly even actor, not to mention an educationalist, who wrote a remarkable history of the British public school system.

St. Amant vs. Staunton  1843 (pictured above) Queen ’ s Gambit Declined. Staunton ’ s convincing victory in this match, combined with equally overwhelming wins against the two other leading European masters of the day, Horwitz and Harrwitz, established Staunton as undisputed champion from 1846-1851.

Staunton vs. Harrwitz   1846 Ponziani opening
Horwitz vs. Staunton   1846 Sicilian Defence
Staunton vs. Horwitz  1851 English opening v Dutch Defence
Staunton vs. Willliams  1851 Bird ’ s opening with double fianchetto
Anderssen, Horwitz, Kling vs. Staunton  1857 consultation game: Hippopotamus defence

Raymond Keene’s latest book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from  Blackwell’s .

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