Tournament
The tournament was organised as single elimination matches, with the eight losers in the first round being dropped from the tournament. Each first-round match was a best-of-three games, draws not counting. Subsequent rounds were best-of-seven, and losers played consolation matches. The pairings were made by chance, i.e. there was no seeding system of the type commonly used in tennis tournaments. Kieseritsky, Bird, and Löwenthal all lost in the first round. Anderssen beat Staunton soundly, 4–1 in the third-round semi-final. In the fourth-round final Anderssen beat Wyvill to take first place. Wyvill had had a relatively easy draw in the tournament to finish second. Staunton suffered a bitter defeat to Williams in the last round consolation match to finish a disappointing fourth.
Read more about this topic: London 1851 Chess Tournament