Here is another historical tidbid brought to you by Mr. Lawrence Totaro of Ultimate Chess Collecting. This came from the Washington Post on April 23rd 1916; it is an unknown simul game from Frank Marshal vs. Jay Hopkins. It may have been the shortest game in Frank Marshall’s career.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
This game is not unknown ,it was also published in the June issue of British Chess Magazine 1916 and recently in the book Kings,Commoners and Knaves by Edward Winter.On the net at Bill Wall’s Chess Traps and Miniatures Collection game # 1208.
And how many people have the June issue of British Chess Magazine 1916? Kings, Commoners, and Knaves is anything but “recent” as that was published in 1999.
Bill Wall has it but is his site really that reliable? From what source does he mention the game?
The game is on page 285 from King,Commoners and Knaves but Winter just re-published it, just like he does in the many of his other articles.
And not to mention his book doesn’t even offer a date which this newspaper obviously does. The BCM, of course, could’ve been incorrect just like many secondary sources.
If you take a look at the next page page (286)of Kings, Commoners and Knaves one will notice Winter’s harsh words regarding Wall’s work; shall we mention the article titled “A question of credibility?”
The correct for black is 8…d6. The newspaper writes PQ8??
The aim of my post was just to point out that this game was not unknow to chess historian not to discredit the finding of Mr.Totaro.
Shortest or not, this game proves Marshall was not better than Napoleon or many other players of the time. He was just more lucky and worked harder. Today, he would draw with many bloggers.
Here’s algebraic.
1. e4 e5
2. d4 exd4
3. c3 dxc3
4. Bc4 Nc6
5. Nf3 Nf6
6. O-O Be7
7. e5 Ng4
8. Qe2 d6
9. exd6 Qxd6
10. h3 Nd4
11. Nxd4 Qh2#
I translated it after reading it in one of my copies of the June Issue of British Chess Magazine, 1916.
The error was 10 h3 that took the position from about even to lost if black plays 10….Nd4 which he did.
He now could have avoided mate by giving up his queen but why bother.
Nice game. I never saw it before. I enjoyed going over it. However, since it was so short it would have been nice to include an algebraic notation of the game. the copy of the newspaper was difficult to read.
When playing black I like to take another pawn and hope to hang in there. so I play
4……cxb2 for a wild ride and some fun. either win quick or lose quick.
Many masters lose games and do mistakes…reading a book titled “Bronstein and the kings indian”, Bronstein(he played for the WC 50 years ago) explains in a very strange way(i can´t find the page,but it was here,i read it about two weeks ago)the type of playing of Capablanca:
1)To know where to put the pawns,he eliminates a bishop
2)To avoid the problem of what rook goes to every site,he eliminates one rook
Thats why he didnt make a lot of mistakes,in Bronstein words.
I am surprised yet…
In all actuality, Marshall clearly underestimated his opponent. He spent the whole game hoping for cxb2 by black, which simply… neve happened.
This was the first error by Marshall. He needed to play Nxc3 at least on moves 5, 6 and 7 – not to mention on move 4, as Bc4 was his clear intention. After missing 5.Nxc3, 6.Nxc3 and 7.Nxc3, white gave black the better chances so that after 7…Ng4 it is already =+.
Then 8.Qe2 is another mistake, as it places the queen on the ideal square for black’s thematic continuation. At this point 8.Nxc3 was no longer possible, but 8.Qd5 was necessary.
8…d6! is the best way to refute white’s weak 8th move. Then after 9.exd6 Qxd6 10.h3?? that gave the game away. 10.Rd1 was a mustm though black has already good advantage after 10…cxb2! 11.Bxb2 Qg6.
At the end, Marshall “died with his boots on” by playing 11.Nxd4 and allowing his king to get mated. Of course, the lesser evil was 11.hg Nxe2+ 12.Bxe2 cb 13.Bxb2 0-0 and black’s advantage is decisive.
Same old Marshall 🙂
I put the game here:
http://chess.maribelajar.com/chesspublisher/viewgame.php?id=1164148715
Obviously he realized h3 was a blunder after Nd4 and then instead of wasting time suffering he used this helpmate to get rid of this game before anyone noticed it too much to be embarrassing.
I totally believe this was a Frank Marshall simul game but the moves appear to have been played by ‘International GM’ Ostrapp Bender