In The Beginning: La Bourdonnais vs. Mcdonnell, London 1834
188 years ago, from June to October 1834, Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais of France and Alexander McDonnell of Ireland played a series of five matches to determine who was the world's best player of their time. La Bourdonnais won with an overall score of 45 wins, 27 losses and 13 draws. Today, this series of matches is considered to be the first inofficial World Championship match. It helped enormously to popularize chess and led to a number of remarkable games. Eugene Manlapao has the details.
Source: chessbase.com