Legacy
Blackburne is an icon of Romantic chess because of his wide open and highly tactical style of play. His large black beard and aggressive style earned him the nickname of "der Schwarze Tod" ("the Black Death", based on the plague of the same name) after his performance in the 1873 Vienna tournament. In 1881, according to one retrospective rating calculation, he was the second most successful player in the world. He was especially strong at endgames and had a great combinative ability which enabled him to win many brilliancy prizes, but he will be best remembered for his popular simultaneous and lightning displays which captured the imagination of the general public who flocked to watch him.
Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess, which he published in 1899, has been recently reprinted by Moravian Chess. It contains over 400 of his games, around 20 problems composed by him, and a short biography.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Henry Blackburne
Famous quotes containing the word legacy:
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)