Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841 – 1924), ‘The Black Death’ as he was popularly known, was an extroverted man with an adventurous spirit. He is worth mentioning among the former greats of chess because he contested some serious games with grandmasters right up to the level of the world champion.
Former New York Times chess columnist Harold C Shonberg once wrote, “Blackburne brought something new and breezy to English chess.” Blackburne was the winner of Berlin 1881 coming ahead of such giants as Szymon Winawer , Louis Paulsen, Johannes Zukertort and Mikhail Chigorin. He was a complete chess professional, playing everyone without scruples. In 1899, he estimated he had played at least 50,000 games, and his career still had 15 years to go.