Great Players of the Past: Joseph Blackburne

thank you, welcome to the

great

players

of the last class, this class will be for the British player Joseph Henry Blackburn. He's probably not in the top five in the world, but definitely in the top five and it's interesting. I was actually trying to figure out who to talk about today and I looked at the Hastings 1895 cross table because there are a lot of good options there and I try to stay out of world champs if I can help it, although sometimes I do. I thought, oh Blackburn, I remember that, so that's my age anyway. Blackburn died, I think, at the age of 82 and he played chess according to this for what you would say 55 years, yeah, um, and that's funny, usually when I have different pictures on different websites of my topic, you know, They are really different and here.

They are almost the same, like this photo here and this photo here he looked like the same guy that had never happened to me, like that old school chess game, so he played a lot of games, a lot of matches, played a lot of tournaments, won a lot of tournaments and basically from the 1860s until he was 19 he played in tournaments and actually won games against students and Lasker, although I mean I didn't usually beat them, in fact I beat Alaska, I think when I was 58, when , when Blackburn was 58, so that's pretty good, and basically the reason I like Blackburn is not because he was a good player or beat good

players

, there are a couple of things I like about him, he learned. and according to the internet, if you go to Wikipedia, of course, you can see a

great

article about him.

There are photographs of other chess players in the Wikipedia article of him. According to the Internet, he learned chess very late, he started playing at the age of 18. and the reason he started playing was because of morphe. He was like, wow, that morphe guy is pretty good, he let me play chess too. In fact, he played a match with Steines about a year or two after he learned to play chess, but that wasn't the case. He didn't do very well, so he played a game with science again which was even worse, but yes, I like his nickname Black Death, so you can't argue with that and, yes, I learned a lot about Blackburn just by reading the biography on Wikipedia. and all the tournaments he played in and famous exhibitions and I didn't realize this Fool's Gambit that almost lost by force for Black was also named after Blackburn.

I didn't realize that um, yeah, so, um, yeah, he played chess forever and ever. and he lived much longer than most people. These are the results of his tournaments. You can see that he played chess for a million years and you know that he placed in the top three or four in many tournaments where there were a lot of strong players and he was. He was British champion several times, of course, and lost matches against Steinits and Zucker Tour. He won a match against Gunsberg and actually beat Zukato in a match when Zukarter was about to die, that was his only hope and he tied a match in it. year uh like Hastings with Kurt Von bartolaben and I've talked about Farm barley but maybe I'll do a class on him because bombero Laban is obviously known for losing the dinots of him and Hastings, but he was actually having a good tournament before that.

The game was pretty good, I think he was a German player, Leyman Bombardment. Well, Blackburn is interesting because of the games he plays, okay and they are not of the highest quality and the initial play may not be what it is today, but Blackburn didn't do it. I didn't back down and I really like some of his games so okay so this game his opponent played something really fun that my brother and I have often talked about which is Bishop taking over F7 and this is known like the Jerome Gambit, although I don't. I don't know why but there's actually a website about Jerome Gambit and my brother and I talked about the game Drone but sometimes this is actually the only famous Jerome Gambit game because Blackburn was black; otherwise if you watch Jerome Gambit it's Rufus versus Tonto and I'm being nice there must be someone who is much worse than Rufus and Doofus okay so White sacrifices two pieces and in fact you would probably see this game more in a Scholastic tournament where the players are total beginners, so you know, okay, but Of course, White is a very prolific player, he played in a lot of tournaments, yeah, okay, Queen H5, of course, you know, attack everything now .

Blackburn, in addition to being a fun player and a good player, was a very fun scorer and in fact scored this game and wrote This is called the Kentucky opening, so favored by certain players, okay, so Blackburn in this position played the very suspicious D6 and wrote not to be left behind in generosity, so even though White was giving away all his pieces, Blackburn decided that he would too. he took the Rook um and black played the Queen H4 threatening F2 and the White Castle and played the Knight F6. This is a very interesting position because White has the advantage in exchange for two pawns, which is very funny since White sacrificed two pieces but the White Queen is trapped and Black is threatening Knight G4 and, as we have pointed out in a lot of morphs, you know, in games and exhibitions, people 150 years ago didn't defend as well as we do now, okay, so you could have an attack that really shouldn't work and would often work well, so if it was white here I'd try to get my queen out or maybe play D4 so my bishop can come out or maybe I'll develop a piece so I don't think I can go there. because I'm a little worried about the knight G4, but he played C3 and that's a little slow because I mean black is trying to attack and white is trying to play c3d4 now, if this game was played today and it was a boring position, c3d4 would be normal. but everyone is sacrificing all their pieces, so C3 is a little slow, okay.

Knight G4, that's a pretty big attack, so if it's soft black, we're obviously threatening, you know, checkmate on two or three and checkmate on one, so C3 was a pretty dumb move, okay? H3 Bishop takes F2 check and King H1 is fine and this is really brilliant what he did now and that's actually what I'm showing to the class. uh Blackburn shows what a strong player he was, he found a really beautiful dunk and it's not a forced dunk but a forced win so um s morphe has taught us all especially in the 18s when they remember who morphy was. you have to use all your pieces to attack and obviously black has not used these pieces at all and I tell my students that they will never listen to me but they could listen at home because you are not my student when you have the two bishops, and black has one of your bishops that has no counterpart, which would obviously be the bishop on the white square.

White does not have a bishop from the white square. Coincidentally, the white king is on a white square, so we have a white bishop as our opponent. has a king on a white square and it doesn't have a bishop on a white square that means we could try to catch it now obviously bishops move diagonally you knew that even the class knew that therefore we want our bishop on this diagonal controls the king, you might think. that's illegal, however, if I could do it, it would be me, if I could check you on that diagonal, I would win, so that's exactly what he did, he played bishop F5, okay and the idea is that I'm attacking your queen because your queen is attacked and where is she? your queen is going to go see the audience is very quiet because there is nowhere to go the only move to save your queen is there is only one move and they can both see it I know you can do it you have to take the rook you have to correct Okay , now we open that diagonal by eliminating the defender.

There are two pawns on that diagonal. Let's eliminate one this way. How do we remove this one? We make it move. Make that pawn move. You can do it, but both. Queen's game phase three yeah, what would Dave say why are you sacrificing? No, he would say well, yes. Queen H3 and then you have to take it and then checkmate. I can never do that. I never have a queen down in a rook and I make my opponent what I like about that game is that White sacrifices two pieces and then Blackburn sacrificed all his pieces, okay, but all his pieces are attacking and White, like It's typical in a lot of morfe games, they have this happening, it's not too good.

So that game was very suspect, that's why White's name was NN, but yeah, I mean, I've never met anyone like that, but when you look at 19th century gears, you know you can see some good things. Okay, now a game that was wow! I did everything right in the game that was played before and this was simultaneously blindfolded, now Karen who edits the videos loves giving symbols blindfolded, that's why some of the videos appear later than others , when he's editing the video, he has to pause the camera because he goes to the other room he does a simulation blindfolded, that's the reason, yeah, when he's done beating everyone, he comes back and edits well, so Blackburn was Very interested in symbols and blindfold simulations when he saw people doing it, he said, "I want to do it." Do it as far as I remember if I read correctly Blackburn was playing against three people at once blindfolded and this was and I'm playing nn so again I don't think there's any point in being able to play too well but yeah I can play three games blindfolded simultaneously, we should look at your games now.

I've played six and I've done it a couple of times, but I usually win in a very boring way, not like a game like this, which was really interesting, okay? you know it's 1863 so I don't want to hear about the opening okay sex everything and let's see who is the smartest in my class there are a lot of people here too what is the name of this opening very close I like the way you agreed she that was good if this was here you would be right smith war is a sicilian force yeah e-force this is E4 E5 look and I wrote a book about Smithmore and my wife is like Smith Morgan okay so no this is actually I'll give you a clue I'll give you a clue Bent Larson good clue where he was from even though he didn't live there he was from there no, no one's okay I'll give you another clue uh that's a bad clue.

I can't give you many other clues. You've never heard of anyone from this country except him. I'm trying to think of a great teacher you've heard of from this country other than him and I can't name. Great man, you haven't heard of him, although you have heard of Ben Larson, right? Do you know what country he was from? Well, it's because of certain things that happened during the war. He lived in South America most of his life, but he was from Denmark they called him his nickname was the Great Dane I guess I could give a Larson lecture anyway this is called the Danish Gambit that's its name you play D4 you play C3 you give it all away okay and N played D6 which is not is not a movie version of B2 is the correct move, okay, okay, this is a good compensation for a pawn, White has a good development, okay, the knight E5 is ridiculous, but it's a blindfold simulation, so leave me alone, okay, it's an absurd move because white has a very simple tactic.

Now, you can both find uh Bishop, thanks, yeah, okay, and then Black only has one move that makes any sense, you have two legal moves, one loses your queen, a dozen king E7, okay, and the game it continues, but obviously, in motion, you don't. You don't have your king at E7, all your pieces are undeveloped, that's kind of nonsense. Okay, the material is the same, check. The F6 knight is forced and now White has hit the drumroll. Queen H5 because the night is set. Now white does not want to exchange queens because black's king. It's very suspicious, but if you move your queen to a random square, your bishop hangs, so you defended your bishop, maybe queen B3 makes more sense, but it's a blindfold, Simon, so give the guy a break. guy, okay C6.

I had a very slow movement considering the problems, but I think I was afraid of the D5 Horse control because the horse is immobilized. Alright. C6 Tower D1 makes sense. The A5 Queen makes sense. F4 RAR. Now remember that White is giving a blindfold at the same time, but he is attacking quite well. It's a pretty good attack. The C5 Queen takes castles, man, I thought morpheus. he used all his pieces to attack and I guess Blackburn learned from that and this looks like one of Morphe's opponents very suspicious yes okay H6 Bishop E8 Bishop B is a really good move with a blindfolded symbol we are threatening the Queen F7 mate is not easy to stop and considering the way the guy played before, I'm surprised you know he's okay, so he played Bishop E6, which stops the mate.

Torre takes F6 now with a blindfolded simole, that's pretty good. I give the guy credit, yeah, yeah, he's fine, now Torre's reason. taking F6 is very complicated, but basically we are doing all kinds of defender removal, we are removing all the defenders, so all of these moves are checkmate, except this bishop on E6 stops them all because the knight is pinned to the right, so this is checkmate, except because the bishop takes and this is checkmate, exceptand this is. These are two tactics in one, there is a problem in the back row because the Rook you don't know and the other problem is overloaded, there are two threats and one of Black's pieces to defend both of them Queen H6 obviously, frankly, yes King h8 so this is pretty good yeah, okay, so King G8 was played, yeah, and now the black queen is overworked, she's doing too much good because basically, if this queen was off the board, let's take her off the board, you have the Queen f8 mate, Rook Brown, mate and the queen H7, so the Black queen is really working hard there, okay, so a grandmaster today wouldn't play the queen E7 because this is too easy to see, they would know that they would try to stop the mate in another way or they would give up.

The problem with H5 is that the rook takes. H5 so maybe we have to go back and play Knight B6 so this trick doesn't happen. Okay, and then the mate is that you all said it, yes, he played the f8 rook and there is only one legal move and then mate, so Blackburn would be Sean unknown players, we also beat the world raiding champion, okay, and You could say it wasn't good, but I don't think you guys did that at home. I beat a world champion, but he wasn't reigning. um, let's think he's raining. now and it was also a task.

I have other excuses too, but yeah, okay, and last but not least, definitely not least was against Henry Bird. This is a very fun game. This is my favorite of the four, which is why I saved it for last. If you didn't know this, you'll learn it right now based on White's name, just based on White's name, what played in a man's play? Some people are paying attention to this class because that's the bird he is and Bird was a British player like Blackburn Bird. He wasn't that good um and uh Blackburn and Bird actually played a lot for fun and in tournaments they play a lot between them and Blackburn claimed that they had this position after move 10, very good, now Blackburn likes to play a little wild and crazy. so you know what he would fight on move one, but again, but what do you do?

It's a Gambit, yeah, right, and then you need um. They all play D6, including Blackburn. I play Knight C6 because I learned that 20 years ago and then my opponent likes what Knight C6 I actually played 9v6 against Ginger GM I think I got crushed. I'm pretty sure that will be destroyed anyway. If you don't want to play a bit of a Frahms game, what else can you play transposing to another opening? for white here, yeah, white smoke, oh same, yeah, E4 and that's called right and I had a game with a player from 1950 one time I was five out of five and he was four and a half out of five and he was the only four and a half so we played around six and our game was F4 E5 he played E4 so I played D5 for symmetry reasons and then he took and I played C6 and he made the losing move so I was five out of five and in the sixth round he was winning in the play. four with black is a good reason what move seems reasonable here why he loses by force that's what he played no he could have frozen now you're talking yes F6 E5 loses he played it and I played it I did I wasn't happy now I' I'm winning and if G3 won his rook and he played G3, so king E2 is even worse, then you get checkmated, well, well, ridiculous, okay, now on to some of the notes I read about the game on the Internet They said not the bird.

I don't like playing E4 in this position because he was playing the birds opening, which would be the King's Gambit, so I'm fine, I don't know if that's true, it would be funny if it were true, the way I'm playing. an opening that has my name on it and then I can transpose another opening. I wouldn't do that as my opening, okay, so D6 and this position in every game I've ever seen, Black plays G5 with the idea of ​​G4 and Blackburn played Knight F6. No I don't know that move so it's just after the sacrifice and after D4 Blackburn showed who Blackburn was he wasn't his opponent he did the craziest move again it's like they were playing beginners except he sees a lot of things . sees a lot of tactics Knight G4 wow like G4 okay yeah he claimed he and Bird played this very similar to this position okay now Bird made a move I never thought of and I teach my students not to do this to players with lower ratings to attack things, okay, it's like, oh, it's brilliant, so you know, okay now, if I were white, I'd develop my pieces, I'd play Maybe E4, eh, maybe G3, something to stop the attack, he made an aggressive move, Bishop G5 and, obviously, if he is in the main. opening lines, black plays G5 G4 black really wants to push his pawns, this made the game very interesting and after F6 black is really better now because we keep pushing our pawns, it is very difficult for white to do anything about it because the bishop G3 doesn't It doesn't look good, I can take it and play Queen D6.

I don't like. I mean, I like it for black people. I don't know. I don't like it for white. That's very suspicious. Well, then you play Bishop F2 and again. I don't know why I'm moving my bishop to F2 when you can take it, so yeah, I mean it's a silly move by White, but a good move by Black, okay Knight H4 F5 with a discovered attack on the Knight G3. F4 you don't see games like this nowadays at the highest level yeah and these were if you took the five best players in Britain here you have two of them so there you go it's funny actually I can make fun of the British team because why not? making fun of Simon Williams making fun of other guys, so as you all know, just yesterday the European Team Championship ended and a couple of funny things happened.

England were ranked 4th and they didn't do well, they came in like 12 or 16. something really bad and Nigel Short wrote some funny things about it, actually it was also funny that the Azerbaijan team won, there was suspicious activity on the Last round, possibly the coaches illegally agreed to draw us for the players and wrote about it on the Internet, so I don't know what will happen with that, but probably nothing also when they accepted the draws, if they did, those requests were made and Azerbaijan could having won a game that was redrawn like maybe between uh nadish and Pana Mario.

I think that means that Azerbaijan would have won more than they won, so accepting a draw when you win, when you win the tournament, there is nothing wrong with it and the argument was that it hurt other teams, as if Azerbaijan had won that game , then some Another team would have gotten the bronze, fine, but it wasn't like they agreed to a tie before the match they played like five hours and supposedly the coaches agreed to a tie so they would draw positions, so even if there were incredible amounts of cheating didn't really affect anything, okay, it wasn't like we lost 4-0 before the match, now that's cheating, now you're fine, for example, when Russia was in the USSR they played Poland in the last round of the Olympiad , now that was cheating, okay? that was 4-0, that was throwing the game 4-0 because they were told to and this happened in many Olympics when the Soviet Union had a stranglehold on Eastern Europe, they just cheated on that, okay, so yeah, like when there's cheating, it's okay anyway.

Going back to the game without sheets, I don't think they were cheating in this game, okay F4 Queen D3, which is the best move to castle, which is also the best move Queen B3, terrible check, okay, so in this position my engine, for Of course, he says it's the same. it only gives one move that matches so you can taunt the players, but if you want you have to find the moves that are good, what's the only good move here for Wyatt? I think many grandmasters today would play it. I think it's a reasonable looking move.

B3 Queen control doesn't make much sense because when Black moves his King, why did White do that? Why is the queen in B3? It's no joke, you know, so you have to do something about it. You thought Black was joking, but he's not a defender, no, no, defense, they're afraid to say King G1. King G1 was played, but Queen B3 was played. Check first the engine prefers King E1 because the king is quite safe here over here it didn't turn out to be safe here it is much safer because the pawns on E2 and the king can go to the queen's side if necessary here he is just a duck sitting down he got crushed there now the check was really bad because he dis-defended the d-pawn for no reason the queen is worse on B the queen is much better on D3 he controls all these squares yeah so that's here it's as far away from the king, well, now white is in trouble, he played King G1 and then was punished with Queen F6, which has a threat that he didn't have if the queen was on D3, so he wins a Tempo and then you make a battery , so very Queen B3, the man is not good, okay, Bishop G2 ignores everything F. takes G3 with subtle threats, yes, now you can see that the king is much safer on E1 because if someone played the queen F2 , you could still run away, you hear you're trapped, okay, um, yeah, uh H take G3 now again, there are notes for the Blackburn game I want to point this out.

I think a lot of people here would play that the Queen takes D4 without thinking and Blackburn writes that his move is better than the Queen takes D4, which I don't necessarily agree with, he could be right, but that's not what I mean is that When many people say they have a problem with checking and it's good that they don't do it, a good player looks and tries to find a better move. I'm not saying it was a better move, but it's just noticeable. he's a good player go to Queen E4 and he still doesn't and actually today in Tuesday's title where we were making fun of Akaro earlier because you know why you're not coming from someone.

I couldn't make fun of Carl says he won all those. games I'm not going to make fun of um he was playing hikara and he was winning and he got to an endgame with two pieces against a rook and then the guy gave up his rook for a minor piece because he had to and then his car would be up a piece and instead of taking instead of doing that, Hikaru thought for a moment and made a better move where he still wins the rook by a piece, but it's much better and then the guy just instantly quit and then Amman Hamilton who was doing comments.

As a good player always does, when they see the winning move they just look, even though it's like a three minute Blitz game, they still find a better move, so even though the Queen takes D4 may be better than F takes G3, that's not even point. The point is, he saw Queen take runway D4 and said, wait a minute, what else can I do? After this move, man, we got some threats here, it was serious, so maybe it was better, man, that's a pretty good move, maybe me. I changed my mind on the subject, okay, so he took the Queen's check F2 obviously and then on the Internet some guy wrote that Black failed one here with the bishop G3 and then someone points out that the queens move sideways, for so Black didn't lose anything, unfortunately for White, but fortunately for our audience, Black made the best move here and again.

While you think, I want to give my commercial to the people at home, to many of the players from 150 years ago who were among the top 10 and 20 in the world. They played a lot of suspicious games, their initial game was not very good, they made a lot of mistakes, but they were very strong players because of things like this, things that I mean, players today who were expert players, Masters, they don't see, they don't see . these things and when they happen they might see them, but obviously if you do a puzzle you might see them, but when you're playing you have to see this beforehand, you can't say, oh, that morphe combo I played when I saw her. in the riddle contest I solved it, it's okay, you're not giving a riddle contest, you're playing a game, you have to see it before it happens, it's okay and no one tells you that there are Maiden three made into two, there is a victory, okay, but when you're in a class do it on the internet you're using your computer to cheat so it's very easy to solve that's no problem right no problem you have the right answer oh I said the right answer and you failed miserably now you're talking That's why she owns the Chess Center owned by Bishop E6, which I'm sure wins.

I think she could play D5 well, so you would take it, man, then I play the queen C3 and then we agree to a draw actually long term, but it doesn't really work out. now but but yes Karen with her Rook F3 bam oh yes whatever you take with the blockade yes, now we are threatening the bishop G3 done if you take with the bishop the knight, tell the bishop that you are cheating because it is pinned dig with the pawn or Bishop Knight G3 is still made if you don't take my Rook. Bishop G3 is made if you move your Rook away to have King H1, I think with a queen and then I play Queen H2, mate, I think the only move that is like that. the stops made in one is like Queen G8 or Queen Takes the Tower, yeah I guess the computer announcers did here that they didn't evencan you stop me, let's see if I'm right, yes, it's me, yes, I didn't see Gentleman G6's check, I must.

Admit it, I also didn't see Knight F5 defending G3, then you play, Rook takes H5, threatening the Rook, H5's partner, who has no defense, wow, there are zero moves to stop the Tower H fight, you have to surrender your queen and then Rick h5man anyway yeah Rook. F3 now Bishop E6 second best move very good that's why you're in the corner yes let's see yes Rook F3 well Karen is always looting all her pieces so Rick F3 is like a baby smile it's very easy yes, yes, very simple, so what? What I like about this game is that obviously White's play was very strange, he moved his queen to a bad square, made a lot of king moves and put his knight aside with his other pieces, but Black didn't need all of them. his pieces this time.

I just needed these three, that was enough yeah, but Rick F3 is really nice and obviously from my point of view when he performed the move F shot G3 here he saw he saw the Tower F3 well he saw after the shots here here here, that's why he played fg3. If I hadn't seen that, I probably would have played Queen take D4 check yeah and what's this call what's that tactic called Rook F3 oh I don't think you guys are going to understand that's too hard for you interference that's true wow what are you interfering with the queen, yeah, very nice interference, so yeah, it looks like we sorted this out because you know, like I told you beforehand, but I didn't, yeah, that's right, so Joseph Henry Blackburn, um, I guess in those days everyone They had three names, maybe they are all silver, I don't know, but he was not the best player in the world, but he was very interesting and, unlike many players of the time who died between the 30s and 40s, he lived he was 80 years old and he was still playing chess he played chess when he was 60 and 70 years old I'm not kidding and as one of our um great, you know, the members, as explained, he manages them, of course, you know, the best player in the world, not quite world champion and played. for a million years I played 55 years, man, that's a long career, so don't forget that Joseph Henry Blackburn and I told them before class, but you weren't here and you probably weren't listening, there's a guy named Arbor .

I won't say his name, but he's Ray Garrison and he's a Class A player and he's six-foot-six, so he stands out. He actually he owned a chess shop before my friend bought it from him and then we and then we owned it. A friend did it and, um, the name of his company, his chess company was the Blackburn ghost, so if you're not a chess player, even if you're a chess player, that's not easy to get yeah and um, so Blackburn had his followers. I'm not sure who they were and unlike all the other players at the time, Blackburn was an author, he wrote about his games and wrote down many of them, and I think in the late 19th century. like in the 90s he published hundreds of his annotated games and most people you know said yeah I won but he was actually interested in his games and watched them and looking at the Blackburn games there are plenty of others famous even on the Internet and search. some other games you won were interesting, maybe not at the highest levels, maybe not, but he saw a lot of things, he played very tactical and complicated and, unlike all the other Grandmasters I show from the 19th century, he also won with black.

I showed you more. More than one gave me one with black because a lot of them would play E4 and SEC, other pieces that made you like Morphe would, but he also went for black, so Blackburn didn't really care what color it was, he wanted play interesting chess. and he sacrificed himself and learned chess at a very old age and tried to play like the players of the time, which was to plunder everything, but even though his results were not the best against Steinens in Alaska, he still beat them because you play with him enough. he will beat someone, maybe yes, of course, the exceptions nowadays, the famous exceptions, if you play against someone enough, you will beat them is Shirov and Kasparov, I sure would never be Casparov, they played a lot, they played, they played like 30 games and I'm sure.

I've never won one and there was another one where both players have 27,200. One guy never won. Nakamura will never be Magnus until he did the right thing, but Shiro will never be Casparov, so that's the end of it. Yeah, well, it's unfortunate. Similar styles, but. because we're always better he's like similar styles you can win at your style yeah I mean park cuz Bravo 100 times so yeah anyway go to Blackburn and go to Blackburn ghost okay until the next and in accordance with this. will be posted immediately now because I didn't know, no one knows, this will be posted in five seconds, yeah, okay, and then we'll see you next time with more great players from past finals conferences and our Sunday conferences, which are just general topics.

Well, those are your favorites, even the ones you don't go to. See you next time, as I like to say, buy half a point in full point.