Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — A Famous Chess Player. [ARTICLE]

A Famous Chess Player.

For more than thirty years J. H. Blackburne has played chess. He is now fifty. He has played fifteen games blindfolded, simultaneously. After such a contest, however, it is said that he cannot sleep for hours. He often discards the game for weeks, declaring that, after a hard-fought match, the sight of a chess-board becomes hateful to him. It is said that the first time he ever played Steinitz was at a club, where some friends, anxious for sport, managed to bring them together. Their identity was kept secret from one another, and each thought the other some ambitious amateur. After the opening moves, however, both realized that it was to be a hard fight. The game lasted nearly four hours, and ended in a draw.—i New York Dispatch.