It has now been proved, beyond the possibility of question, by the admirable researches of Dr. Duncan Forbes, that the original authors of the Chess-board and its arcana were the Hindoos. All the best modern writers upon the subject agree in admitting this conclusion, though some may still assert for the traditional claims of other nations more validity than they justly merit. Previously to the inquiries of Dr. Forbes, writers on Chess gave us a wide choice as to the seat of its invention. The Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Arabians, the Araucanians, the Jews, the Scythians, the Babylonians—nay, even the Irish and the Welsh, were indifferently credited with the possible contrivance of the art. In many of these cases the choice was sufficiently absurd as to the period when Chess was first played; but Chess authors had no definite idea except that the game was of very remote antiquity. Such tribes as the Scythians, the Irish, and the Welsh were in a state of rude barbarism; and existing literature shows that neither the classical nations nor those with which they were intimately associated had any acquaintance with the game.
Howard Staunton (1810–1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape–the Staunton pattern promulgated by Nathaniel Cooke–that is still the style required for competitions. He was the principal organizer of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player. In 1836, Staunton came to London, where he took out a subscription for William Greenwood Walker's Games at Chess, actually played in London, by the late Alexander McDonnell Esq. Staunton was apparently twenty-six when he took a serious interest in chess. He said that at that time the strongest players he saw in London, Saint-Amant and George Walker, could easily have given him rook odds. In 1849, Nathaniel Cooke registered a chess set design, and Jaques of London obtained the manufacturing rights. Staunton advertised the new set in his Illustrated London News chess column, pointing out that the pieces were easily identifiable, very stable, and good-looking. Robert B. Wormald (1834-1876), the author is famous for writing Chess book. He has written and edited the following books namely, Chess openings, Robert B Wormald (1834-1876), ed.: Chess: theory & practice; containing the laws & history of the game, together with an analysis of the openings, & a treatise of end games (London, Virtue, 1876), by Howard Staunton, Robert B Wormald(1834-1876); The hand-book of chess, (London, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1860), Robert B Wormald (1834-1876); The laws and practice of chess : together with an analysis of the openings / (London : Chatto & Windus, 1890), also by Howard Staunton, Robert B Wormald (1834-1876), ed.; The laws and practice of chess; together with an analysis of the openings, and a treatise on end games; (London, Virtue & co., 1876), by Howard Staunton.
