The Labourdonnais Picnic is an entertaining classic that shows the power of the pawns. the game was played in 1834 and was the 16th game of a match between Louis Charles Mahe de Labourdonnais from France and Alexander McDonnell from Ireland, back then arguably the world's best players. It was the first match of importance in the history of chess and is sometimes referred to today as the World Championship of 1834. The games were published widely, and were annotated and discussed by enthusiasts all over Europe. In the course of the mammoth encounter, both players introduced several innovations, a few of which are still seen today. It might even be said that the modern era of chess began with the McDonnell-La Bourdonnais match of 1834.