author
Alexander McDonnell
1798–1835
A brilliant early chess master from Belfast, he is best remembered for his dramatic 1834 match series with Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, a rivalry often treated as an unofficial world championship of its era. His games helped give competitive chess some of its first great legends.
1 Audiobook
Compulsory manumission : or, An examination of the actual state of the West India question
by Alexander McDonnell
About the author
Born in Belfast in 1798, Alexander McDonnell was an Irish chess master who rose to prominence in the early 19th century. He spent part of his working life in business, including years in Demerara, and later became secretary to the West India Committee in London.
McDonnell studied with the leading British player William Lewis and quickly developed into one of the strongest players in Britain. In 1834 he played a famous series of matches in London against Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, then widely regarded as the world's best player. Those contests were published and discussed widely, and they remain some of the most celebrated games from chess's early competitive history.
He died in London in 1835, only a year after those landmark matches. Although his life was short, his bold, tactical style and his role in one of chess's first great rivalries secured his place in the game's history.