Joseph Henry Blackburne nicknamed "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.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.

Joseph Henry Blackburne was born in Manchester in December 1841. His father was a temperance reformer who travelled all over Britain and Ireland, taking his son with him. Ironically Joseph Blackburne became famous for his heavy drinking of whisky while playing chess.

He learned how to play draughts as a child but it was not until he heard about Paul Morphy's exploits around Europe that he switched to playing chess

Blackburne joined the Manchester Chess Club around 1860.In July 1861 he lost 5-0 in a match with Manchester's strongest player, Edward Pindar (and champion of the Provinces), but 3 months later Blackburne defeated Pindar (5 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss). Next year he became champion of the city club, ahead of Pindar and Bernhard Horwitz (who taught him endgame theory).

Blackburne's introduction to blindfold chess was a little later: in November 1861 Louis Paulsen give a simultaneous blindfold exhibition in Manchester, beating Blackburne among others; Blackburne was soon playing chess blindfolded with 3 players simultaneously

Less than two years after learning the moves, Blackburne entered the 1862 London International Tournament (the world's first chess round-robin or all-play-all tournament) and defeated Wilhelm Steinitz in their individual game, although Blackburne finished in 9th place (last). Up to that point time-keeping was measured with hourglasses, and it was Blackburne who suggested chess clocks.This trip cost Blackburne his job back in Manchester (accounts vary about what it was), and he became a professional chess-player.

In the 1868-69 season he won the British championship by beating the current holder, Cecil Valentine De Vere, and he was therefore regarded as England's best player.His first major international success was in a strong tournament at Baden-Baden in 1870, where he shared 3rd place with Gustav Neumann, behind Adolf Anderssen and Wilhelm Steinitz but ahead of Paulsen, De Vere, Simon Winawer, Samuel Rosenthal 

Blackburne was regularly one of the world's top five players from 1871 to 1889, although Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker and, during his brief prime, Johannes Zukertort were clearly better players; and he remained in the top 20 until 1902, when he was 61 years old.His best results were in international tournaments. Although tournaments were much less frequent then than they are now,Blackburne played in nearly one strong tournament per year from 1870 to 1899; in particular he competed regularly in the German Chess Championship, which was an open tournament.In the 1870s and 1880s he was almost always a high prize-winner.

In the mid to late 1890s Blackburne's was less successful in tournaments, but by this time he was competing against the next generation of players, Emanuel Lasker and Lasker's major rivals. Blackburne's worst results were 10th place at Hastings 1895 and 11th at Nuremberg 1896; but both of these tournaments included Lasker and most of the other top players of the new generation; and in both of these he finished ahead of several of the new stars and ahead of the few competing players of his own generation.

Chessmetrics concludes that Blackburne's best performances, taking account of the strength of his opponents, were his second places at Frankfurt 1887 (behind Mackenzie) and London 1892 (behind Emanuel Lasker). At London 1892 he finished only ½ point behind Emanuel Lasker

particular he was twice thrashed by Steinitz, in 1862 (+1, -7, =2) and 1876 (+0, -7, =0); but in 1862 Blackburne had been playing chess for barely 2 years, and in 1876 Steinitz was playing at his life-time best and in the middle of a 24-game winning streak.Emanuel Lasker annihilated Blackburne in 1892, but Lasker also beat Steinitz very decisively in their 1894 championship match. Blackburne was also comfortably beaten in 1881 by Zukertort (+2 =5 −7), who was in great form at the time; and Zukertort's health and play were declining rapidly when Blackburne beat him in 1887 (+5-1=7).On the other hand against Gunsberg Blackburne won his 1881 match (+7 -4 =3) and lost his 1887 match (+2, -5, =6); the 1887 match was Gunsberg's strongest performanceand Gunsberg only narrowly lost a world title match against Steinitz in 1890 (+6=9-4).

The 1876 match against Steinitz was held at the West-end Chess Club in London.The stakes were £60 a side with the winner taking all. This was a considerable sum of money in Victorian times – £60 in 1876 would be roughly equivalent to £29,000 in 2006's money.This was the first time that spectators were charged an entrance fee (half a guinea, = 52.5P in decimal terms) to see a chess match.

Blackburne's fondness for drinking whisky at the board once led him to down an opponent's glass. Shortly afterwards, the opponent resigned, leading him to quip, "My opponent left a glass of whisky en prise and I took it en passant". In an interview with a liquor industry publication, Blackburne once claimed that drinking whisky cleared his brain and improved his chessplay.

There is even a story that part of the prize fund at Hastings 1895 was paid in advance, and for Blackburne the "currency" was a case of Scotch. Mr. Blackburne finished the case of Scotch during the first six rounds of play at which point his game fell off.

During a simultaneous exhibition at Cambridge University, the students thought they would gain an advantage by placing two bottles of whisky near the boards. Blackburne won all his games very quickly and finished off both bottles of whisky before the exhibition was over.

Blackburne could become violent when drunk – in 1889 Steinitz claimed that Blackburne had assaulted him in London (1867) and a few years later in Paris, and that Blackburne had also assaulted three other men, one even smaller than Steinitz.

n 1914, at the age of 72, Blackburne won a Special Brilliancy Prize for his win over Aron Nimzowitsch at the great St. Petersburg 1914 tournament, but failed to qualify for the final stage.That same year he tied for first place in the British championship with Frederick Yates, but ill health prevented him from contesting the play-off for the title. This was Blackburne's last major tournament. However in 1921 Blackburne was still giving simultaneous exhibitions.

In 1922 his wife died. Blackburne died of a heart attack on September 1, 1924 at the age of 82.

Joseph Henry Blackburne was a chess professional all his life and the greatest player England produced in the 19th century. Here is his most brilliant game at his finest triumph in Berlin where he finished first ahead of Zukertort and every leading master with the exception of Steinitz, who did not participate.

White allows his opponent to obtain two passed pawns on the Queenside in exchange for posting a Rook on the seventh rank. The game was adjourned at move 31, and not only Lipschutz, but the spectators -- including Steinitz -- were certain that Black must win. The combination initiated by White's 32nd move brought a rude awakening.

Thank you this post. I found it to be very interesting.

Blackburne is one of my favorites I posted about him in my blog - I will paste the links below but much of it is above as well - keep up the good work...

The Black Death of Chess - Blackburne Introductio (Part 1)

They Called Him Black Death - Joseph Henry Blackburne (Part 2)

Now this is good learning about past masters and history of game   Thank you