George Alcock MacDonnell (16 August 1830 – 3 June 1899) was an Irish chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master.

He tied for 3rd-4th at London 1862 (the 5th British Chess Congress, Adolf Anderssen

Adolf Anderssen

Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...

 won),
won two matches against George Henry Mackenzie

George Henry Mackenzie

George Henry Mackenzie was a Scottish–American chess master....

 (8 : 5) and (6.5 : 3.5) both at Dublin 1862, shared 1st with Wilhelm Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz was an Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier...

 at Dublin 1865, but lost a play-off game to him there, tied for 2nd-3rd at London 1866 (the 1st British Chess Championship

British Chess Championship

The British Chess Championship is organised by the English Chess Federation. There are separate championships for men and women. Since 1923 there have been sections for juniors, and since 1982 there has been an over-sixty championship. The championship venue usually changes every year and has been...

, Cecil De Vere won),
tied for 3rd-4th at Dundee (Gustav Neumann

Gustav Neumann

Gustav Richard Ludwig Neumann was a German chess master.Neumann was born in Gleiwitz in the Prussian Province of Silesia. In matches he lost to Louis Paulsen at Leipzig 1864, and defeated Celso Golmayo Zúpide , and Simon Winawer at Paris 1867...

 won),
tied for 3rd-5th at London 1868/69 (the 2nd BCA Challenge Cup, Joseph Henry Blackburne

Joseph Henry Blackburne

Joseph Henry Blackburne , 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...

 and De Vere won),
shared 3rd at London 1872 (Steinitz won),
and took 4th at London 1872 (the 4th BCA Challenge Cup, John Wisker

John Wisker

John Wisker was an English chess player and journalist. By 1870, he was one of the world's ten best chess players, and the second-best English-born player, behind only Joseph Henry Blackburne.Wisker moved to London in 1866 to become a reporter for the City Press and befriended Howard Staunton...

 and De Vere won).

MacDonnell won a match against Wisker (3.5 : 0.5) at Bristol 1873, and lost a rematch (6 : 9) at London 1874. He took 4th at London 1876 (Blackburne won),
took 4th at London 1879 (Quadrangular, Henry Bird won), took 3rd at London 1883 (Vizayanagaram, Curt von Bardeleben

Curt von Bardeleben

Curt von Bardeleben was a Count and a German chess master who committed suicide by jumping out of a window in 1924. His life and death were the basis for that of the main character in the novel The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov, which was made into the movie The Luzhin Defence...

 won),
took 4th at Bath 1884 (Wayte won), tied for 5-6th at London 1885 (Isidor Gunsberg

Isidor Gunsberg

Isidor Arthur Gunsberg began his career as the player operating the remote-controlled chess automaton Mephisto, but later became a chess professional....

 won), shared 1st at London 1866, tied for 7-8th at London 1886 (Blackburne and Amos Burn

Amos Burn

Amos Burn was an English chess player, one of the world's leading players at the end of the 19th century, and a chess writer....

 won),
lost a match to Blackburne (1.5 : 2.5) at London 1887, and took 6th at Stamford 1887 (Joseph Henry Blake

Joseph Henry Blake (chess player)

Joseph Henry Blake was an English chess master.Blake won many tournaments played in England toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He won at Stamford 1887, Oxford 1891 , Brighton 1892, Cambridge 1893, and Salisbury 1898...

 won).

He led a chess column in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News was an English weekly magazine founded in 1874 and published in London. In 1945 it changed its name to the Sport and Country, and in 1957 to the Farm and Country, before closing in 1970....

for many years. He wrote two books: Chess Life Pictures (London 1883) and Knights and Kings of Chess (London 1894).

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