John Cochrane

1820, against the chess Automaton — the celebrated exhibition machine that in reality concealed a hidden human player. Cochrane, then twenty-two, meets 1.e4 e6 with an early f4 bind, wins the d5 pawn with 21.Nxd5, and finishes by planting a rook on c7 and c8 until the Automaton must give up its queen: 29.Rc8 Qxc8 30.Qxc8+.

Café de la Régence, 1821 — Cochrane with Black against Louis-Charles de La Bourdonnais, who would soon be recognised as the strongest player alive. The classifier records the line as the King's Gambit Accepted, Salvio Gambit, Cochrane Gambit — his name is on the opening. He chases the white king out of its own camp with 5...Qh4+, 7...Qh3+, 8...Qg2+ and 9...Bh6+, driving it to d3 by move ten, and grinds the material advantage home to move 30.

The same 1821 Paris visit, now against Alexandre Deschapelles — La Bourdonnais's teacher and, before him, the most feared player in Europe. Cochrane plays the Scotch Gambit and sacrifices at once: 5.Ng5 and 6.Bxf7+, dragging the king to f7 by move ten. The finish is pure Cochrane — 29.Rd8+ Rxd8 30.Rf8+ Kxf8 31.cxd8=Q+, giving up both rooks to promote.

London 1841, a fourteen-move demolition of George Walker, the leading English chess writer of the day. The Scotch Lolli again: 7.Nxf7 Kxf7 8.Bxe6+ Kxe6, and Walker's king is stranded on the sixth rank in the opening. 13.f5+ Kxe5 14.Bf4+ and it was over.

London 1841 against William Popert, one of the strongest players in the capital's clubs. Cochrane takes Black in an Italian Game and wins in nineteen moves — a reminder that on his 1841–42 furlough from India he was still able to beat the best players England could put in front of him.

One of the long series of casual games with Howard Staunton, England's leading player, during Cochrane's return to London. Sixteen moves, and the same knight sacrifice he used all his life: 9.Nxf7 Kxf7 10.f5, then 12.fxe6+ and 13.Qh5+ g6 14.Qh4, finishing with 16.Bh6.

Staunton again, 1842, this time answering the Sicilian with the Bowdler Attack 2.Bc4. Cochrane gives up the exchange for the attack — 15.Qh5 Bxf1 — then ignores the rook entirely: 16.Qxf7+ Kd8 17.Ba3 pins the position together and 19.Bc6+ Bxd1 20.Qxe8+ ends it in twenty moves.

The game that carries both their names: the record classifies this 1842 encounter as the Sicilian Defense, Staunton–Cochrane Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c4). A forty-two-move positional struggle rather than a sacrifice — Cochrane manoeuvres on the queenside, wins the b- and c-pawns with 36.Qxb6 and 37.Qxc5, and breaks through on e6.

Calcutta 1848 — the first recorded outing of the Cochrane Gambit, and against Moheschunder Bannerjee, the Brahmin player Cochrane had found in the countryside outside the city. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7!? throws a knight into the black king on move four; twenty-one moves later 24.Qc5 Qxf7 25.Bxd6+ collects the point. The gambit still bears his name.

Calcutta 1850, the Cochrane Gambit again and this time a twenty-move miniature. Bannerjee grabs everything he is offered — 16...Bxf1, 17...Qxh2, 19...Qxc1 — and Cochrane simply keeps pushing: 18.dxc6 and 20.cxd7+, the passed pawn arriving before the material ever matters.