Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924) grew up in Manchester where, fortunately for him, there was a strong community of chess players in the early 1860s.  In particular, he received encouragement from Charles Henry Stanley (1819-1901) who conducted a weekly chess column in a Manchester newspaper, which published Blackburne's earliest efforts at problem composition.

Also important in his earliest years as a chess player were Russian-born Eduard Pindar (1828-1892?), who played several matches with Blackburne in 1861-2. The German-born master and endgame expert Bernhard Horwitz (1807?-1885) was also resident in Manchester at this time and it is reckoned that Blackburne's later excellence in the final phase of chess games owed a lot to Horwitz's influence.
It was, though, the visit of German master Louis Paulsen to Manchester Chess Club in late November 1861 that was to have a decisive influence on Blackburne's chess development. (Paulsen's visit is described in great detail in Hans Renette's excellent Paulsen biography, whose publication was subsequent to mine on Blackburne.)

During Paulsen's visit Blackburne was able to play the master several times. In two games that are preserved, he lost one and drew one. Later, in consultation with two other club members, Blackburne even won a victory but admittedly Paulsen was also playing against two other sets of club members at the same time.

The highlight of Paulsen's visit, however, was his blindfold display against ten opponents, which was adjourned after 21 moves (with just one game won) and completed two days later. Blackburne lost to Paulsen on this occasion but the exhibition inspired Blackburne to try this feat himself.

It should be emphasised that on such occasions the player concerned was not usually actually blindfolded, but (as the illustration above shows) he sat apart from the opponents with his back turned, the moves being written down or spoken, then brought to and fro by a "teller" or umpire. In contemporary reports it is often said that the master played "without sight of boards or men" without mention of any blindfold.

The fullest account Blackburne ever gave of his early feats at this form of chess was in 1887 to a Sheffield news reporter; the full text of the interview is included in an appendix to my biography. Another appendix lists his scores in all the blindfold exhibitions of which we had discovered evidence in our research up to early 2015.

The interval of a quarter of a century means Blackburne's recall may not have been perfect, but he told the interviewer that the day after Paulsen's visit he tried the experiment against "one of the strongest local amateurs" and, finding he accomplished this with ease and no mistakes, he next played three the following Saturday afternoon with only one slight mistake. Stanley's column in the Manchester Weekly Express and Guardian confirms that Blackburne did indeed play three simultaneous blindfold games on Saturday 7 December 1861.

There is no confirmation of Blackburne's claim that he played seven opponents the following weekend but in the second half of January 1862 he certainly did play a 7-board and then a 10-board simultaneous blindfold performance. There was also a 4-board exhibition in January. Further 10-board exhibitions followed in 1862. The documentation for all this can be found in chapter 2 of my book.
There I also quote from an interview Blackburne gave in 1889 where he said that he tried to play fifteen games — a claim often repeated, but it seems he never succeeded in completing an exhibition with that number.

Most exhibitions that Blackburne and other masters of the Victorian era gave were against eight or ten opponents, which from a practical point of view was the largest number they could complete in one lengthy session of play against reasonably strong opposition from club players.

The organisers of the London 1862 chess congress arranged several side events apart from the main tournament. The most publicised of these were the 10-board blindfold exhibitions given by Paulsen on 2 July and then Blackburne on 4 July.

Paulsen won 6 games, lost three and drew one in about ten hours. Blackburne achieved the equivalent result (5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses) in somewhat less time, after which he called out the knight's tour blindfold starting at a square nominated by a member of the audience. All commentators agreed that Blackburne surpassed his older rival in both speed and precision. Only one amateur played both exhibitions. Paulsen's average opposition may have been slightly stronger; after all he was by far the more experienced chess master at that time, though Blackburne was to surpass him later.

Blackburne was not a chess professional at this time. He soon returned to Manchester and clerical work but from time to time over the next two or here years he gave further blindfold exhibitions. In particular, after a five-board exhibition in Oxford, the Oxford Times (of 25 April) mentioned that Blackburne had once played blindfold against 12 opponents. Unfortunately that feat is not documented.

In my book, I report in detail on the best documented occasion when Blackburne definitely did successfully take on 12 opponents simultaneously blindfold, on Saturday 20th and Monday 22nd June 1863 at Stewart's Dining Hall in Manchester. After seven or eight hours play in the first session Blackburne had won five games and lost two. The remaining five games were all resumed on the Monday, Blackburne's final score being +6 -4 =2. The Manchester Guardian on 22 June named all the opponents but only one game score has survived.

Many national newspapers took up the story, most saying that nobody had previously played 12 simultaneous blindfold games although Löwenthal (in The Era), who was aware of Paulsen's claims, said he believed it was a European record. This is the only 12-board blindfold exhibition by Blackburne that I have been able to document definitively.

The history of blindfold chess by Eliot Hearst and John Knott (published by McFarland in 2009) says that Blackburne "gave a large number of displays on six or eight boards, dozens of displays on 10 boards, and several on 12" but the only instance of 12 that they cite is incorrect. Blackburne was indeed engaged to play 12 opponents at the coastal town of Warrnambool, Victoria, in Australia, on 21 January 1885, but the report in the Australian paper The Argus two days later shows that two of his intended victims did not turn up so he actually played ten there.

"Blindfold" exhibitions against a large number of opponents necessarily went slowly because the moves had to be conducted back and forth, so even if the master had no difficulty recalling the positions and deciding his moves, it was often the case that some games had to be adjourned and finished another day, as with Paulsen in Manchester. Then there could be a difficulty in assembling the opponents for a second session of play. There are several reports that Paulsen's blindfold play was very slow and several of his displays even required more than two sessions; these complaints were never made about Blackburne who only required a second session  on that one occasion in 1863.

On several occasions Blackburne spoke of having played twelve opponents blindfold and occasionally of trying 15 but never claimed to have succeeded in the latter. "A match against fifteen would take quite ten hours" he told the Sheffield interviewer.

So I think it is not the case that Blackburne, when he was younger, felt that playing 12 was too difficult but rather that the time required was too great and, especially if he had further engagements elsewhere, he would not be available to continue unfinished games. For the display in Manchester in June 1863 he was at home so this was not a problem and he was due to play at Warrnambool again on the 22nd so any unfinished games could have been managed. Also he probably reckoned the opposition in the small Australian town would be weaker than he would encounter in a big city so that several games might be won quickly.

In my book I go on to discuss whether Blackburne's feat of playing 12 in June 1863 was a world record.  In the Hearst and Knott book there is an appendix listing in chronological order the world record blindfold feats and they do not include Blackburne because they have Paulsen down for both 12 and 15 prior to 1863.

While it is certain that Paulsen tried to achieve those numbers there is no certain proof that he completed a display with 12 opponents and clear proof that he did not finish one against 15.

Blindfold play has a long history. Philidor is known to have played three opponents in London on 31 May 1878, conceding odds of pawn and move in two of the games. That record was broken when Kieseritzky played four in Paris on 27 April 1851. Remarkably, and probably to help clearly distinguish the games in his mind, Kieseritzky called out his moves in four different languages. He won three and lost one game.

Paulsen, who may or may not have been aware of this, first equalled and then surpassed the mark in a series of exhibitions while living in America in 1857 and 1858. There seems little doubt that he achieved five games over two evenings during the American Chess Congress of 1857, and later increased his number to seven, eight and ten. Beyond that the documentation seemed to me lacking when I was writing my Blackburne book.

Hearst and Knott do say Paulsen played 12 in Saint Louis, Missouri, in June 1858, but this claim is questioned in my book where I quote other historians who had investigated Paulsen's claims. Hearst and Knott were also sceptical about the supervision of some of Paulsen's exhibitions, the fact that many featured adjournments (a first with Paulsen) and that game scores and results are lacking. On the other hand, they judged that while Paul Morphy was undeniably a much quicker blindfold player than Paulsen, he probably never attempted to play more than eight such games at once.

Renette discusses Louis Paulsen's attempt to "sharpen the blindfold record" in detail in chapter 4 of his biography. Just as I hoped to prove that Blackburne set a record, it is understandable that he would seek to justify the claims of his hero.

It is clear that Paulsen, from 10-14 May 1858 at Chicago, was the first to play ten simultaneous blindfold games although it took him 22 hours over five sessions to complete all the games. Then during a lengthy stay at Saint Louis in June it seems that Paulsen did play 10 opponents twice, requiring five sessions to complete one and four to complete the second.

His supposed 12 board exhibition is more contentious. Renette discusses the evidence and seems inclined to believe Paulsen did intend to attempt this feat but has to accept that the balance of evidence is that it probably did not happen. Certainly the proof, such as it is, is not on the level of that available for Blackburne's 1863 feat in Manchester. The editors of the Guinness Book of Records would not be satisfied by the Paulsen claim.

It was later the same year, while Paulsen was in Dubuque, Iowa (where, with his brother Ernst, he was a tobacco merchant) that he seems to have had ample time to play more blindfold exhibitions. In Dubuque, also, the level of opposition could not be expected to be as high as in a big city.

It seems undeniable that in November 1858 Paulsen did attempt to play 15 simultaneous blindfold games but there was only about five and a half hours play (discounting a  dinner break). None of the games were finished and there was no second session.

It seems he was unable to complete it chiefly due to the reluctance of the opponents to return on another occasion when mostly had bad positions. The same probably happened to Blackburne on the (unknown) occasion when he attempted fifteen. Thereafter it seems that Paulsen accepted that ten was the largest practical number for a blindfold exhibition to be completed in one session by him, as did Blackburne.

The record of 12 games (whoever one considers to have held it) was broken in the 1870s by Zukertort. He had possibly played 14 earlier (as Hearst and Knott say) though I have not the evidence. Zukertort was a notorious fabulist, claiming falsely to have earned a doctorate, etc.

Undoubtedly, though, in December 1876 Zukertort set a new record of 16 blindfold simultaneous games at the West End Chess Club in London (not the St. George's Club as Hearst and Knott erroneously wrote). There is a detailed report in The Field of 23 December, written by Steinitz who was clearly impressed by his great rival's performance.

The exhibition began on Saturday 16th December with Zukertort taking White and Black on alternate boards. This probably helped him to distinguish between the game sin his mind, but Blackburne generally took the White pieces when playing blindfold.

Some of Zukertort's opponents were quite strong club players. Only two games were completed after six hours and the adjourned games were resumed the following Thursday evening (except one where the opponent defaulted). The total time of play was twelve and a half hours and Zukertort lost only one game (rather quickly to Dr. Ballard) and drew three.

This record of 16 games stood until it was equalled and then surpassed in the 1890s by Harry Nelson Pillsbury. It is likely that Zukertort chose the number of 16 as it exceeded the 15 that had been claimed (though not confirmed) by both Paulsen and Blackburne. In the Twentieth Century the record was increased successively to much higher numbers by several masters.

There are many anecdotes about blindfold players, not only Blackburne, correcting opponents who tried to make illegal moves — probably because they had been analysing and had not replaced a piece or two on its correct square. The blindfold player had to rely entirely on his memory and powers of visualisation.

Around the year 1892, the French psychologist Alfred Binet, intrigued by an article about blindfold chess in the magazine La Stratégie, resolved to undertake a more scientific investigation into the phenomenon. He devised a questionnaire to be put to practitioners of the dark art and his conclusions appeared in 1894 in a book entitled Psychologie des Grand Calculateurs et Joueurs d'Echecs.

The English player who interviewed Blackburne on Binet's behalf was named throughout his book as "Cunnock" but it must have been Alfred J. Curnock (1867-1935), an amateur member of the City of London Chess Club, who on at least one occasion conducted four games simultaneously blindfold.

The following is a rough translation of what Binet says on page 217:

"Mr. Blackburne, despite numerous requests, has always shut himself up in absolute silence. He claims that he is completely ignorant of the procedures he uses to play without seeing, and that even if he knew them, he would be unable to explain them. Undeterred by this sphinx-like answer, Mr. Cunnock [sic] had the wit to enter into discussions with Mr. Blackburne on the question, and excite him with paradoxes. In the heat of the discussion, Mr. Blackburne allowed himself to make some interesting confessions, which Mr. Cunnock sent to me and of which I was able to make use.

On page 277 the famous quotation appears: M. Blackburne voit la position sur l'echiquier aussi nettement que s'il avait celui-ci devant les yeux. ("Blackburne sees the position on the chessboard as clearly as if he were looking at it.")

Hearst and Knott, taking this in conjunction with what Blackburne said on another occasion (that a good player concerns himself with the powers of the pieces, not the colour of the squares and shape of the pieces), argue that he "probably meant that when playing blindfold chess he had as complete a knowledge of the location of the pieces, and of the geometry of the position, as he could gain from looking at the board with pieces on it."

Blackburne's visualisation was possibly similar to what Tarrasch described in the same book: in his mind's eye he saw a small chessboard like a printed diagram, the squares not coloured but just shaded light or dark.

Speaking to an interviewer from The Star (9 May 1888) Blackburne said he never made a note on paper and "I can generally see four or five [moves] ahead." He told the interviewer he could play a single blindfold game as easily as one seeing the board but "the difficulty increases, of course, with the number of games."

Blackburne, like all successful blindfold players, must have trained his mind to switch between games, by varying openings and keeping the games in a numbered sequence so that the position currently requiring attention was foregrounded and the others sidelined, just as when playing an ambulatory simultaneous exhibition.

He told the Star interviewer that:

I never have any uncertainty as to the position on the board, for if necessary I pass the game through my mind move by move as it has been played from the beginning.

Blackburne was probably well paid for these exhibitions by the chess clubs he visited, often annually. Typically he would visit for two days, playing an ordinary simul and/or consultation games on the second day. The main problem he complained of was that it took him hours to get to sleep after playing blindfold.

As he grew older Blackburne gradually decreased the number of opponents he faced. According to my research ten years ago, Warrnambool was the last time he played ten and he usually preferred eight (though nine men played him once in Leeds in 1887).

This became more usually six opponents from the late 1890s though occasionally he still played eight. The first year with no recorded blindfold exhibitions was 1902 when his health was very bad and he played no serious competitions. He was now in his sixties.

The last time Blackburne played six opponents blindfold was at the Insurance Chess Club in London on 1 October 1908 and he won every game. After that I only found mention of one last blindfold simul. Some time in January 1912, according to The Field, he played four opponents in Cranleigh, Surrey, and won every game.

The figures in Appendix V of my book are not quite definitive (reports of a few more exhibitions were found since in digitized newspapers). Nevertheless  we can say that in his lifetime Blackburne played over 2440 games in blindfold simultaneous exhibitions, winning more than 1,550 of them and losing only just over two hundred games.