The Black Death vs. The Great Beast
Blackburne-Crowley 1/2-1/2
Blackburne simul Eastbourne
Cambridge, England 1894.
White Joseph Henry Blackburne
Black Aleister Crowley
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Qd4 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 Nf6 9. Ba3 Qa5 10. Bb4 c5 11. Bxc5 Nxe4 12. Bb4 Qd5 13. Qxd5 exd5 14. Rd1 Bb7 15. Be2 a5 16. Ba3 Nxc3 17. Rd3 Nxe2 18. Re3+ Kd8 19. Kxe2 d4 20. Re7 Re8 21. Rxe8+ Kxe8 22. Kd3 f6 23. Kxd4 Kf7 24. c3 Re8 25. Rb1 Bc6 26. c4 Re2 27. Rb2 Rxb2 28. Bxb2 Ke6 1/2-1/2
Joseph Henry Blackburne (10 December 1841 – 1 September 1924), nicknamed “The Black Death”, dominated British chess during the latter part of the 19th century. He learned the game at the relatively late age of 18 but quickly became a strong player and went on to develop a professional chess career that spanned over 50 years. At one point he was the world’s second most successful player, with a string of tournament victories behind him, but he really enjoyed popularising chess by giving simultaneous and blindfold displays around the country. Blackburne also published a collection of his own games, and was a chess correspondent for a leading journal until his death.
He was also noted for heavy drinking of Scotch whisky, especially during exhibition games, and this became the subject of many anecdotes. However he occasionally became violent when drunk, and his victims included other chess players.
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other fields, including mountaineering, chess and poetry. In his role as the founder of the Thelemite philosophy, he came to see himself as the prophet who was entrusted with informing humanity that it was entering the new Aeon of Horus in the early twentieth century.
Born into a wealthy upper class family, as a young man he became an influential member of the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn after befriending the order’s leader, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Subsequently believing that he was being contacted by his Holy Guardian Angel, an entity known as Aiwass, while staying in Egypt in 1904, he “received” a text known as The Book of the Law from what he believed was a divine source, and around which he would come to develop his new philosophy of Thelema. He would go on to found his own occult society, the A∴A∴ and eventually rose to become a leader of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), before founding a religious commune in Cefalù known as the Abbey of Thelema, which he led from 1920 through till 1923. After being evicted from Cefalù he returned to Britain, where he continued to promote Thelema until his death…
infamously dubbed “The Wickedest Man In the World.”
for more games http://hermetic.com/crowley/other/aleister-crowley-chess-master.html
http://hermetic.com/crowley/other/notes-from-aleister-crowleys-chess-set.html