The invaluable 100th Monkey Press website has just added some fascinating chess articles by and about Aleister Crowley – all for free download:
- Eastbourne Chess Club from the 1 November 1893 edition of the Eastbourne Gazette
- Chess from the 3 November 1893 edition of the Sussex Agricultural Express
- Chess from the 27 January 1894 edition of the Sussex Agricultural Express
- Chess Match from the 17 March 1894 edition of the Hastings and St. Leonards Observer
- Chess Match from the 7 April 1894 edition of the Hastings and St. Leonards Observer
- Chess from the 2 March 1896 edition of the Morning Post
- North London v. Cambridge University from the 10 March 1896 edition of the Daily News
- Chess in Cambridge from the 30 October 1896 edition of the Saffron Walden Weekly News
- Chess from the 22 February 1897 edition of the Morning Post
- Oxford v. Cambridge from the 3 April 1897 edition of the Daily News
- Inter-University Chess Match from the 26 March 1898 edition of the Morning Post
Source: What’s New with the Monkey
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Based on the inter-university match of 1898 and a few other games I’ve seen notated, Crowley appeared to favor the king’s pawn opening (which we can ascertain from the 1898 article by realizing the French defense can only by played against 1.e4). If I had to make an informed guess, his response to Churchill’s French defense would be Nc3 or even Nf3. This is unsurprising, and maybe I hoped his preferred openings were as arcane as his other interests, but oh well. When playing black, he has been demonstrated to use the Taimanov variation of the open Sicilian, and the… Read more »
Hi djedi,
Aleister had a few favourite openings which i can say for sure one was retis opening and another he liked was evans gambit i am able to confirm this as i am in possession of his personal chess book, he made notes and references to openings and games, the book was written by Dr S Tarrach