Frank Marshall

Frank James Marshall (August 10, 1877 – November 9, 1944) was the U.S. Chess Champion from 1909 to 1936, and one of the world's strongest chess players in the early part of the 20th century.

Chess career Marshall was born in New York City, and lived in Montreal, Canada, from age 8 to 19. He began playing chess at the age of 10, and by 1890 (aged 13) was one of the leading players in Montreal.

Marshall (fifth from left) at the St. Louis tournament (1904), which he won He won the 1904 Cambridge Springs International Chess Congress (scoring 13/15, ahead of World Champion Emanuel Lasker) and the U.S. Congress in 1904, but did not get the national title because the U.S. champion at that time, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, did not compete. In 1906 Pillsbury died and Marshall again refused the championship title until he won it in competition in 1909.

In 1907 he played a match against World Champion Emanuel Lasker for the title and lost eight games, winning none and drawing seven. They played their match in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, and Memphis from January 26 to April 8, 1907.

In 1909, he agreed to play a match with then young Cuban chess player José Capablanca and, to most people's surprise, lost eight games, drew fourteen, and won only one. After this defeat, Marshall did not resent Capablanca; instead, he realized the young man had immense talent and deserved recognition. The American champion worked hard to ensure Capablanca had the chance to play at the highest levels of competition. Marshall insisted that Capablanca be permitted to enter the San Sebastián tournament in 1911, an exclusive championship promising to be one of the strongest yet in history. Despite much protest at his inclusion, Capablanca won the tournament.

Marshall finished fifth at the St. Petersburg tournament in 1914, behind World Champion Lasker, future World Champions Capablanca and Alekhine, and former World Championship challenger Tarrasch, but ahead of the players who did not qualify for the final: Ossip Bernstein, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Blackburne, Janowski, and Gunsberg. According to Marshall's 1942 autobiography, which was reportedly ghostwritten by Fred Reinfeld, Tsar Nicholas II conferred the title of "Grandmaster" on Marshall and the other four finalists. Chess historian Edward Winter has questioned this, stating that the earliest known sources that support this story are Marshall's autobiography and an article by Robert Lewis Taylor in the June 15, 1940, issue of The New Yorker.

In 1915, Marshall opened the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. In 1925 Marshall appeared in the short Soviet film Chess Fever in a cameo appearance along with Capablanca.

In 1920, he won the American Chess Congress.

In 1922, Marshall played 155 games simultaneously at the National Club in Montreal, Canada, a world record. He scored 126 wins, 21 draws, and 8 losses in just over 7 hours. One week later, when Marshall returned to New York, he replayed every single move of each game, and was able to remember 154 of the 155 games. In 1924 Marshall played in the strongest tournament ever held up to that date in New York city and finished 4th after Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine.

In the 1930s, Marshall captained the U.S. team to four gold medals at four Chess Olympiads. During one round, he returned to the board and found that his teammates had agreed to three draws. After he finished his own game, he gave each of them a stern talk individually on how draws do not win matches.

In 1936, after holding the U.S. championship title for 27 years, he relinquished it to the winner of a championship tournament. The first such tournament was sponsored by the National Chess Federation and held in New York. The Marshall Chess Club donated the trophy, and the first winner was Samuel Reshevsky.

Marshall died in November 1944, after collapsing during a walk in Jersey City.

Assessment Marshall was best known for his great tactical skill. One aspect of this was the "Marshall swindle", where a trick would turn a lost game around. Andrew Soltis writes that, "In later years his prowess at rescuing the irretrievable took on magical proportions". Not so well known now, but appreciated in his day, was his endgame skill.

Opening theory

During his early career, Marshall was primarily known as a colorful tactical player in the Morphy tradition. When playing the White pieces, he normally used e4 openings such as King's Gambit and Vienna Game. As Black, he favored the Albin Countergambit as an answer to the Queen's Gambit. By the 1920s, most elite chess players had switched entirely to d4 openings and a more positional style of play, and Marshall changed his playing style to adapt to the times. In his later years, he often used the Caro–Kann Defense and Indian Defenses.

Books Frank Marshall, My Fifty Years of Chess, 1942, (2002 Hardinge Simpole edition), also published as Marshall's Best Games of Chess, (1960 Dover Publications). This was republished in 2003: (Buchanan Press {January 9, 2013}) Andy Soltis, Frank Marshall, United States Chess Champion: A Biography With 220 Games, 1994. Frank James Marshall, Marshall's Chess "Swindles", 1914, (American Chess Bulletin publication, 130pp.) John S. Hilbert, Young Marshall : The Early Chess Career of Frank James Marshall, with Collected Games, 1893-1900, 2002, (Moravian Chess Publishing, 282pp.)

Quotes "The hardest thing in chess is to win a won game."

Notable games

Marshall's famous 23...Qg3

In his famous game against Stepan Levitsky, Marshall concluded with a of his queen, allowing it to be captured three different ways, all of which would lead to imminent checkmate or an endgame with a losing disadvantage for white.

Win over Capablanca with black Although Marshall lost to Capablanca far more often than he won (+2−20=28), they had many draws and Marshall was one of only a few players ever to beat Capablanca with the black pieces.

Capablanca rarely lost in the endgame.