Biography
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, at the age of 18-19:
I learnt the game in, say, 1859 —BlackburneBlackburne 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 (five wins, two draws, one 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 three players simultaneously.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Henry Blackburne
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)