"Make no mistake about it, I was the first and also the greatest GM" says the man lounging in the arm chair opposite me. A wild claim? not everyone would think so because that man is the great Howard Staunton.  

"I mean, I could have been even stronger but I'm also a bit of a literary genius and was working my way through Shakespeare, improving the bits where Bill went wrong and believe me this was a bloody full time job, I mean the guy had some good ideas I'm not knocking him but he just didn't seem to know how to write. So chess for me was something I did whenever I could find time"

I suggested to Mr. Staunton that he owed a lot to his illustrious predecessors, Ruy Lopez, Legal and so on. "Not really mate" he told me "yeah the frogs were pretty good, but no match for me when I decided to stick it to them. Yeah and the Spanish religious guy, y'know fair do's they had talent but it was me who was really the first GM I reckon."

Mr. Staunton seems a man who it is hard to warm to, with never a good word to say about anyone. Although I pointed out to Mr. Staunton that Bobby Fischer called him 'the most profound opening analyst of all time'. "Oh well that's very nice of his lordship" said Staunton "but he was crap an' all. If I'd have lived in his era I would have shown him who's boss."

I then suggested to Mr. Staunton that he didn't exactly show Morphy who was the boss. 
"Oh I never got to play that shortarse yank so we'll never know now will we?"
There were several suggestions that Staunton avoided playing Morphy but all these suggestions were vigorously denied, however Paulsen has a different opinion.

"I remember Morphy had come over to play Staunton, he had kicked my arse real good and now wanted to take on the big fella. I was at the St George chess club with Howard when I saw him turn white as a ghost, I looked round and Morphy walked past looking for someone. I turned round and Howard had gone but then I looked down and he was crouching behind a table, pretending to tie his shoelace. Morphy didn't see him and Howard made his excuse and left the club after that. He didn't return for two or three weeks"

Morphy however, turned up at the club for the next few weeks hoping to find Staunton. On the fifth week they did in fact meet. Paulsen again takes up the story. 
"Morphy was playing some panzer at the odds of a queen and we were all crowded round watching the game as Morphy sacced more and more material and plucked the king out into the middle of the board when I stepped back a bit and trod on something, I felt a gentle crack and heard a muffled sob, I looked down and there, crouching under a table with tears in his eyes was Staunton. 
I asked him what he was doing down under the table and he flushed red and said
"errm well I dropped a pawn somewhere down here and I'm trying to find it"
then Staunton quickly scurried to the door on his hands and knees"

I put these claim to Mr. Staunton to see what he had to say about them.
"Look, honest" he said "I did drop a pawn somewhere I was just looking for it"
I suggested to that this was a somewhat unbelievable story and asked Mr. Staunton why he then crawled out of the room on his hands and knees.
"Well I had a bit of a problem with me back, I couldn't get up, the doctor had advised me to stay in bed but I went to the club in spite of this just to kick Morphy's arse".
I put it to Mr. Staunton that there were no medical records in existence that could corroborate his claim of back problems. 
"well, I just crawled out cos I didn't want to disturb the game did I?"
I put it to Mr. Staunton that he was infact ducking Morphy and general opinion is that he did everything in his power to avoid a match, Mr. Staunton then got a big shifty and looked quickly out of the window and said "Look I think my taxi's here, errr nice talking to you mate, I'll see you later".