Henry Blackburne, the English genius

"My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant' -Henry Blackburne

Joseph Henry Blackburne, known as Henry Blackburne, was born December 10th, 1841, and died September 1st, 1924. He was a the best English chess player in the latter parts of the 1800's, a fairly strong chess nation at the time. 

The date when he learned chess isn't known for sure, but most agree that he learned around 18. He was inspired by the great Paul Morphy, the best chess player of the time.  In 1861, two years after he learned the game, he joined the Manchester Chess Club. It was said that he played Eduard Pindar, the club champion, and was demolished by him 5-0. The chastened Blackburne studied hard for a year, and the next time he played Pindar he won 5-1-1. 

After this he soon became club champion, learning from Bernhard Horwitz, the great endgame theorist. Blackburne had a special talent for blindfold simultaneous displays, and even late in his life he still gave these regularly. Blackburne participated in the 1862 London International Tournament, finishing ninth. This was a very diverse tournament with players from around the world. The standings were:

1. Adolf Anderson, 11/14

2. Louis Paulsen, 9/14

3. John Owen, 7/14

4. George Alcock MacDonell, 7/14

5. Serafina Dubois, 6/14

6. Wilheim Steinitz, 6/14

7. Thomas Wilson Barnes, 6/14

8. James Hannah, 4/14

9. Joseph Henry Blackburne, 3/14

10. Johann Jacob Lowenthal, 3/14

11. James Robey, 2/14

12. Frederic Deacon, 2/14

13. Augustus Mongredien, 2/14

14. Valentine Green, 2/14

While Blackburne did not do so well, he did beat Wilheim Steinitz, the furture world champion, in their individual game! 

This tournament did do more than hurt his pride however, when he returned home to Manchester he found that he lost his job! This forced Blackburne to turn to chess as income. The choice was a good one. In 1869 he beat Cecil Valentine De Vere and became Englands best player.

His first international tournament came in 1870 when he finished 3rd behind Anderson and Steinitz in a strong Baden-Baden tournament. After this he was regarded as one of the top five best players in the world, although Zuckertort and Lasker were obviously better players.

Blackburne played as much as he could, most notably in the German Chess Championships between 1870 and 1899. During this period he recieved his famous nickname, "The Black Death." He played very well in tournaments, tying with Steinitz in a London chess tournament with 10/11, ahead of Zukertort. In 1883 he finished first in a very strong Berlin tournament, 3 points ahead of Zukertort.

In fact, one his worst result was 6th place from the years 1870-1890! This was very impressive for chess players of that day. In the 1890's however his results started to decline as the next generation of chess players began to improve. He was beaten by Steinitz in two matches with 1 win, 7 losses and 2 draws in the first, and 0 wins, 7 losses and 0 draws in the second. His climax was probably around 1885, when he shared 2nd ahead of greats like Siegbert Tarrasch, James Mason and Isidor Gunsberg.

Blackburne continued to play in tournament until the early 20th century, and then switched to simuls exclusively.

Some of his ideas were ingenious, such as doubling the f pawns to open up the g file. One of the best examples of this is his game against Schawrz, famously called "Blackburne Singing In The Dead Of Knight" after the famous Beatles song "Blackbirds Singing In The Dead Of Night"

A beautiful example of Blackburne's idea in a game.

The final game is against the reigning world champion Emanuel Lasker. Blackburne was 58!

Thank you all for reading and good luck in chess!