Blackburne was the second son of what might be called a lower middle class family. His father Joseph Blackburn (no final "e") practised as a phrenologist and had various business activities as well as becoming known as a temperance lecturer (somebody who travelled the country warning of the evil of alcoholic drink).

Joseph Henry first came to notice as a promising chess player in the summer of 1861 when he was several times mentioned in a local chess column and occasionally in The Field, a national sporting paper. In his early career he also composed several chess problems and returned to this activity sometimes in later years.

Late in 1861, inspired by the visit of the German master Louis Paulsen to Manchester, he first tried playing chess "blindfold", that is without sight of the board and men against several opponents who were not similarly handicapped. He seemed to find this easier to do than Paulsen.

Blackburne's earliest feats at blindfold play led to him receiving an invitation to the great London 1862 international tournament at which he conducted a 10-board display with markedly greater facility than Paulsen. In the tournament itself he had only moderate success but won three games, defeating amongst others the future world champion Steinitz, before returning home where he continued in clerical employment punctuated by short periods of playing chess.

In June 1863 Blackburne set a new world record by successfully conducting twelve chess games simultaneously blindfold in Manchester; this record stood until 1876 when Johannes Zukertort played 16 in London although it took him two sessions of play to complete the games.

Move to London

By 1865 Blackburne had moved to London where he married 27-year-old Eleanor (or Ellen), Driscoll, the daughter of a carpenter. They had two sons but one died very young and the eldest died in 1875, shortly after his mother.

It is noteworthy that when the elder boy was baptised in 1868 (shortly before his death) Blackburne stated he was a "professional chess player" for the first time, rather than, on the birth certificate for the two boys, "machinist's clerk." On official documents for several more years Blackburne would describe himself as a clerk and he probably did such work whenever there were few opportunities to make money from chess.

It was during late 1868 and early 1869 that Blackburne achieved his first great success as a tournament player, winning the second competition ever held for the British Chess Association's challenge cup, in effect becoming British Champion. When this was first contested in 1866 Blackburne had not competed.

Throughout his career, Blackburne was rarely successful in head-to-head match play but in tournaments with multiple opponents he remained a formidable competitor right up to the last events he played in 1914 when the First World War effectively forced his retirement.

His international results steadily improved. At Dundee in 1867 he finished fifth of ten players but again defeated Steinitz. In the stronger field at Baden-Baden in 1870 (his first tournament abroad) he finished third behind the great Adolf Anderssen but again won a game against the runner-up, Steinitz.

In the autumn and winter of 1871 Blackburne went on his first major nationwide tour of chess clubs, giving simultaneous exhibitions and blindfolds performances. It was sometimes said in the time that he was planning to emigrate to Australia but it seems that he changed his mind, perhaps because the tour was so successful and in most subsequent years until the 1890s he repeated these tours of Great Britain.

Tournament successes

In the London 1872 Gold Cup tournament Blackburne finished second to Steinitz but ahead of Zukertort. Then in the summer of 1873, at the great tournament in Vienna, Blackburne came very close to victory only to lose the tie-break to his perennial match-play nemesis, Steinitz.

In the Spring of 1876, having just suffered a crushing match defeat to Steinitz, he bounced back to win the Divan tournament in which the best of the rest of English-resident players competed.

Paris 1878 was a marathon tournament in which twelve competitors played each other twice. Despite falling seriously ill, Blackburne managed to take third prize.

Blackburne continued to experience misfortune in his family life. In October 1876 he had married again, to 23-year-old Beatrice Lapham whose late father was described on the marriage certificate as a publisher. They had two sons, one of whom (Julius) is last traceable in the English census of 1891 so probably emigrated prior to 1901. Beatrice died early in 1880 only a few weeks after giving birth and that baby died later the same year.

Blackburne's home life definitely improved at the end of 1880 when he married for the third and last time, to the 42-year-old widow Mary Jane Goodway (née Fox) who had at that time an adult soon and four younger children varying in age between eight and 16 so Julius acquired several step-siblings who later adopted the Blackburne surname.  In 1881 Blackburne and Mary had a son of their own, Frederick William, to complete the family.

Blackburne was at his peak as a player in the early 1880s, starting with shared first prize at Wiesbaden in 1880 and then outright first prize at Berlin 1881 in a field of 18, three points ahead of runner-up Zukertort to whom he had lost a match some time previously.  Sixth of 18 players in the marathon Vienna 1882 tournament, where Steinitz made his come-back, was a relative disappointment but this result still demonstrated that he was in the world elite.

Although Blackburne never again won such an important international tournament, as in 1881, he generally took high placings including third at London 1883 and second at Nuremberg a few weeks later, second again at Hamburg 1885, fourth at New York 1889 and second at Manchester 1890. He also won some lesser tournaments including Hereford 1885 and two in London in 1886. He also improved as a match player in later years.

These successes followed a major breakdown of his health in 1884 when it was feared Blackburne would die. To assist his convalescence, chess players subscribed money to pay for him to sail to Australia for the winter of 1884-5, which he did, accompanied by Julius who probably thus acquired a taste for travel. While "Down Under", Blackburne gave a number of chess exhibitions, visiting Melbourne and Sydney and smaller towns and finally Adelaide, before returning to Europe just in time to play at Hamburg.

In the 1890s, as could be expected as he passed fifty years of age, Blackburne began to experience periods of poor health again and his results deteriorated. Between 1893 and 1896 the family moved to Hastings, on the Sussex coast, perhaps on medical advice. Then in 1896 the family returned to London and for most of the rest of his life the Blackburnes lived in Sandrock Road, Lewisham.

Nevertheless he continued his tours and blindfold exhibitions and on his day he could beat anyone in tournaments, as his victories against the rising star Emanuel Lasker at both Hastings 1895 and London 1899 demonstrated.

Blackburne had to miss the Paris 1900 tournament due to health issues and although he played at Monte Carlo in 1901, he withdrew from the 1902 tournament there at the last minute.

He returned to competitive play in 1904, the year the British Chess Federation was founded and the modern series of British Championship tournaments began.  He also played at Ostend in 1905, 1906 and 1907.

Then in 1914 he played his last tournament abroad, at St. Petersburg, where he (his 73rd year) did manage to win one game: against Nimzowitsch.

Blackburne played the British Championship with mixed results every year bar one up to 1914 and in that year he died first with F. D. Yates. There were calls for the title to be shared, especially in view of the war, but when Blackburne was too unwell for a play-off match, the B.C.F. rather churlishly awarded the title to Yates.

The First World War effectively ended Blackburne's career though he did give occasional exhibitions during and in the years immediately following.

Mary Blackburne died in 1922 and the great master lived only another 30 months. They are buried together in Ladywell cemetery but the gravestone has toppled and is hard to find.

Unfortunately, so far as we have been able to ascertain, Blackburne has no living descendants because the fate of Julius is unknown and Frederick William Blackburne died in 1941, having never married. His will mentions no children.