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Dec-10-08
 | | brankat: Close to 20 Gs a year in simuls, plus a few bucks in tournaments, mmybe an odd column for a newspaper/magazine.
For doing something he enjoyed doing.
Not bad at all. Especially by today's standards.
At least 90% of today's GMs can't make their living playing Chess. Not to mention the IMs. In last couple of decades alone quite a few promising GMs gave up their Chess careers, more or less, by the age of 30. R.I.P. master Blackburne.
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| Dec-22-08 | | zzzzzzzzzzzz: <brankat> R.I.P. GRANDMASTER Blackburne |
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| Dec-22-08 | | zzzzzzzzzzzz: blackburne annotated a lot of games |
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| Jan-14-09 | | thebribri8: ...and New York City is pretty crowded. |
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Mar-27-09
 | | amadeus: Chess and Alcohol: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... |
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Mar-27-09
 | | keypusher: From Gunsberg vs Blackburne, 1914: Tarrasch in the tournament book: <Why does Gunsberg, at an age when Anderssen and Steinitz were still enormously strong, show scarcely a trace of his former strength? And why are the <beaux gestes> of Blackburne, a 73-year-old man -- one cannot say an old man -- still so acceptable? Could it be the power of alcohol, which Blackburne consumed in considerable quantities all his life and which proved to be a medium of preservation for him, while Gunsberg is an outspoken teetotaler? Blackburne's case is a phenomenon that the temperance union must explain, for it is appropriate for reducing their efforts directly <ad absurdum>.> And let us not forget, Tarrasch was a doctor. |
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| Dec-10-09 | | WhiteRook48: happy birthday master Blackburne!! |
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Jan-07-10
 | | HeMateMe: Huh? "Black Death" didn't learn chess till the age of 18? Seems hard to believe. I don't think it would be possible today. One of< Morphy's> most for-reaching accomplishments was that of inspiring Joseph Blackburne to take up chess. Blackburne had been impressed enough by the champion, that after Morphy's final visit to England in the Spring of 1859, Blackburne, then an 18 year-old laborer, took up chess. The following year Blackburne joined his local chess club in Manchester. Then the next year, 1861, he played, and lost 5-0, a match with the provincial champion, Edward Pindar (who had just won the Manchester tournament in 1861). Just three months after this devastating loss, Blackburne beat the champion in a match +5-1=2 (They also played another match which Blackburne won). During that monumental year, Blackburne was further impressed by the blindfold prowess of a nemesis of Morphy, Louis Paulsen. Blackburne was inspired to try blindfold chess himself. The next year Blackburne entered the London International tournament, winning 9th place, but beating Steinitz in the process. He lost his day job and took up chess professionally, possibly thinking chess to be an easier way to earn a living. If so, it would be ironic that Blackbune turned into one of the hardest working professional players of all time. When people discuss "natural players," those who seem to understand the intricacies of the game almost without effort, the names of Morphy and Capablanca, both privileged child prodigies, come up immediately.< But, having the disadvantage of not even learning chess until he was 18, Blackburnes own meteoric rise attests to his uncanny natural talent >which seems at the very least equal to that of either Morphy of Capablanca. When Blackburne died in 1924, he had been playing professional chess around 60 years. |
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Jan-27-10
 | | Benzol: <ughaibu> asked on the thread of this game Kramnik vs Topalov, 2003 about a blindfold game where Blackburne announced a mate in sixteen moves. "Blackburne's Chess Games" has the following position: Blackburne - Scott
click for larger view 1.Rxe6+ Kh7
2.Qd3+ Rg6
3.Qxg6+ fxg6
4.Re7+ Kg8
5.Be6+ Kf8
6.Rf7+ Ke8
7.Nf6+ Kd8
8.Rd7+ Kc8
9.Rxa7+ Kb8
10.Nd7+ Kc8
11.Nc5+ Kd8
12.Rd7+ Kc8
13.Rf7+ Kd8
14.Nb7+ Ke8
15.Nxd6+ Kd8
and either 16.Rd7 or 16.Bb6 mates.
Really remarkable considering he was blindfolded. The game isn't in the DB and my book only has the game starting from the position above. It's a pity that the whole game doesn't seem to have survived. Blackburne was a truly great player. |
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| Jan-27-10 | | ughaibu: Considering this: http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/200... and this: http://books.google.com/books?id=Lv... it seems likely that the score is lost. |
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Jun-28-10
 | | GrahamClayton: <percyblakeney>An alleged Blackburne quote: "Chess is a kind of mental alcohol. It inebriates the man who plays it constantly. He lives in a chess atmosphere, and his dreams are of gambits and endgames. I have known many an able man ruined by chess" <percyblakeney>,
The text of the interview that featured this quote can be found at: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... |
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Jul-16-10
| | GrahamClayton: Here is an 1888 drawing of Blackburne from the "Vanity Fair" magazine: http://www.vanityfairprints.com/pag... |
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Sep-09-10
| | GrahamClayton: From the "Sydney Morning Herald" dated the 13th of January 1885: "Joseph Henry Blackburne, the English chess-player, was fined 5 pounds, with 3 guineas costs, at the Port Melbourne Police Court this morning, for having assaulted a fellow passenger on the 10th of December,on the voyage here." |
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| Dec-01-10 | | goodevans: <GrahamClayton: Here is an 1888 drawing of Blackburne from the "Vanity Fair" magazine> I have that on my wall by my computer desk. I also have a book of his games somewhere around the house that I bought as a teenager. More recently, though, I've found many of his losses more interesting than his wins. He seems to have the knack of being on the wrong end of spectacular combinations. |
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Dec-10-10
| | brankat: R.I.P. Master Blackburne. |
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| Dec-10-10 | | Xeroxx: <Huh? "Black Death" didn't learn chess till the age of 18? Seems hard to believe. I don't think it would be possible today.> Not possible for 18 year olds to learn chess today? |
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Dec-10-10
 | | TheFocus: It is possible for a person to learn chess at a late age (18 or above) and still go on to become a Master, IM or GM. It is completely erroneous to believe otherwise. |
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| Dec-10-10 | | BobCrisp: <Rubinstein>, <Pillsbury> and <Charousek> were other famous late-bloomers. Each displayed phenomenal rates of improvement. |
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| Aug-09-11 | | Antiochus: 1125 games of Blackburne are here
(a cura di Franco Pezzi):
http://www.gambitchess.com/antiques... |
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| Oct-09-11 | | Karpova: C.N. 7114
Link: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...Correspondent John Blackstone draws attention to page 11 of the 'New York Evening Post', 1910.10.05 written by Frank James Marshall <My dear Blackburne,
I notice with a great deal of pleasure the movement which has been set on foot to commemorate the completion of 50 years of chess life in your career, and I want to add my personal good wishes to the many that will pour in upon you as the brilliant and much-loved representative of British chess. Your style of play, which to my mind should be cultivated much more than it is, has always appealed to me, and I believe I have profited much by a study of your famous games. Whether I have lost or won I have thoroughly enjoyed the games we have had together and both because of your standing in the chess world and my own regard for you I value as such the privilege of having met you so often face to face across the chequered board. Regretting my inability to greet you personally on this auspicious occasion and hoping you may long survive in the interest of the cause you espoused and for the gratification of your man [sic], friends and admirers I remain yours very sincerely (Signed) Frank J. Marshall
New York, 29 September.> |
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Dec-10-11
| | brankat: Born 170 years ago.
R.I.P. master Blackburne. |
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| Jun-01-12 | | Llawdogg: Blackburne was a real chess professional. |
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Dec-10-12
| | brankat: Happy Birthday Master Blackburne. |
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Jan-04-13
 | | Phony Benoni: A Blackburne story, from the <Baltimore American> of May 4, 1884: <"Mr. Blackburne was once contesting a game with a very absent-minded gentleman, when this position was reached: 
click for larger viewMr. Blackburne, who was playing with the Black pieces, in order to amuse the bystanders, seized the White bishop and moved it to f3, at the same time saying 'Mate!' "'Oh, no, not mate', said his opponent, 'I can take it with the knight.' "'I beg pardon', said Mr. Blackburne, 'You cannot capture your own piece.' "'That's so', said the absent-minded gentleman, and sank back in his chair, resigned to his defeat."> |
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Feb-16-13
 | | rookhouse: Article in which Blackburne refers to chess as "a vice" just posted here: http://www.rookhouse.com/blackburne... |
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