Chess.com recently initiated (uh hur hur hur!) a series called “Bad Boys” featuring chess aficionados who’s lives contradicted the stereotype of staid nerds. Who do you think chess Bad Boy #1 was? Here’s an excerpt from a fairly long and fascinating piece (to Crowleyphiles at least!)
“After finished studying under Mr. Lambert at Eastbourne, Crowley entered Trinity College at Cambridge. He joined and eventually served as president of the Cambridge University Chess Club. Although he had contemplated becoming a professional player, when he attended a chess congress in Berlin in 1897, the dreary reality of the chess masters he observed quickly dissuaded him. By this time he was into mysticism and the occult.
Crowley was possibly one of the most misunderstood or least understood persons, around whom rumors and speculation swarmed like flies. Flaunting most conventions, dabbling in impropriety and ignoring social mores, Crowley was far removed from the norm, but neither was he the personification of evil he was made out to be by the sensationalist journalists. ”
Read the entired piece here: https://www.chess.com/article/view/bad-boys-i.
