Great Players: Alexander McDonnell

 One of the distinguishing features of the early days of competitive chess was that there was very little money in the game. (There arguably still is, but nowadays there is enough that the elite players can make a living from playing alone.) This led to a situation where most of the top players had to make their living by other means, sometimes making great contributions to the world.

Well, this is not such a case.

Alexander McDonnell (1798-1835) was one of the key figures in the development of the game; his six matches with de LaBourdonnais in 1834 could be considered the model for today's world championship matches, and perhaps more importantly, they set a precedent that important matches of that nature should have their games recorded for posterity. Although he was overall the loser of the series of matches, his winning the second match 5-4 means you could arguably call him a proto-World Champion before there was an official title. (He was also leading the sixth match 5-4 when it was halted for his opponent to go back to France to deal with his creditors; before it could be resumed, McDonnell was dead.)

He was also a man whose primary source of income was first as a merchant, and later what we would now know of as a lobbyist, and in that latter capacity he wrote several pamphlets advocating on behalf of slave owners. For more details, I suggest this excellent article by "gerrytastic", which goes into plenty of detail about McDonnell's life and his unsavoury business dealings. To quote gerrytastic's summary:

Alexander McDonnell, a fine chess player, with a fair claim to being a World Champion, but someone who did his utmost on behalf of wealthy and unscrupulous plantation owners to impede the abolition of slavery within the British Empire.

He wouldn't by any means be the last world-class chess player to have despicable political opinions, but he was arguably the most influential of them. A great player, yes, but very far from a great man.