Great chessplayers come in all shapes and sizes and quite often seem to have some serious flaws in their characters. The arrogance and drunken behaviour of Alekhine, for example, together with his (and Fischer’s) anti-Semitism are well documented. It’s a pleasure, therefore, to feature Frank Marshall for, as well as being a brilliant and exciting player, he was a thoroughly popular man. Good natured and larger than life, he enjoyed a gamble almost as much as a drink (both traits sometimes being reflected in his games!) He was, nevertheless, the champion of the United States for an incredible 25 years; between 1909 and 1935.
Perhaps the finest performance of his whole career came in 1904 when, at the age of 27, he won the great Cambridge Springs Tournament without losing a single game (and in the company of one or two pretty nifty players; Dr. Lasker, Schlecter, Tchigorin, Pillsbury, Janowski and Mieses amongst others!) His games are reminiscent of an earlier, more flamboyant and romantic chess age, for he revelled in sacrifices and combinations. He won many a ‘lost’ game by what became known as Marshall’s ‘swindles’. Later analysis may have shown some of them to have been technically unsound but, over the board, his opponents often failed to find the best replies and, partly because of that, he was a superb tournament player.
He was never as successful in match play, however, and he lost against players he was always likely to beat in tournaments. For instance, in 1905, he was beaten by Dr. Tarrasch (8 to 1 with 8 draws); yet, in a tournament in Nuremburg the following year, he came first (again without losing a single game) beating a very strong field which included Dr. Tarrasch.
Around 1909 there was a great deal of talk about the rising Cuban star, 21 year old, José Capablanca. Marshall was persuaded to meet him in a match but, once again, this only showed him in the worst light, for out of the 23 games they played he won only one of them (drawing 14 and losing 8). It was a different story 2 years later when in the New York tournament he won first prize with 8 wins, 4 draws and no losses (which was good enough to place him ahead of Capablanca). When we look at many of the games which he won, his own position often looks very precarious. If you click on the following link you'll be able to play through one of his most famous games and you'll see why he could never be accused of having played boring chess! (Just hit theBack button to return.)
His final move has been described as the most beautiful ever played. It’s said that spectators (including Russians who had bet on Levitsky) showered the board with gold roubles, marks and Austrian crowns after seeing Marshall escape by placing his Queen where it threatened mate; Levitsky feeling compelled to resign even though he could capture the Queen in any one of three different ways!
During the 1914-18 War, Marshall founded his Chess Divan in New York where hospitality, instruction and encouragement were provided for all chess players; youngsters especially. Incidentally, it was there in 1942, that Capablanca died of a heart attack. The Divan later became the Marshall Chess Club which still thrives and has its own website (www.marshallchessclub.org.)
During the Second World War, when Marshall was in his sixties, he played ten lightning games against one of the best players in the world at that time, Reuben Fine. Allegedly, Frank was drunk as a skunk while Reuben was sober. The result was 10 : 0 to Marshall.
It’s recorded that, at the concluding banquet of an International Team Tournament, Frank was so overcome with emotion (?) that when he was asked to make a speech on behalf of the victorious Americans he could only wave the Stars and Stripes and shout ‘Hip-hip-hooray’. Here’s an 8 move curiosity from 100 years ago. Marshall is playing Tchigorin (sometimes spelt Chigorin) who was one of the top three or four players in the world at the end of the 19th. century. He was definitely having an off day when he played this game. Maybe the Mediterranean heat was getting to him. Anyway, it’s reassuring to know that this sort of thing can happen to the best of us!
To all lovers of bold, original chess, the name of Frank J. Marshall must remain a constant source of inspiration. His games sparkle with spontaneity, flair and surprise. He always played courageously; never shying away from putting his theories to the test whether he was playing casually or in a match for the world championship. It’s refreshing to know that, as well as leaving us a legacy of attractive and exciting games, this grandmaster was also known for his unfailing sportsmanship.
GRANDMASTER PROFILE
Alexander A. Alekhine (1892 - 1946)
According to most sources, Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was not the most likeable man in the world. However, there are plenty of people who would claim that he was the best chess player who ever lived.
He played over 1000 tournament games, scoring 73% in them and his historical ELO rating has been calculated to be 2690. He certainly crammed a great deal of living into his 54 years:- Wounded during the First World War; made a prisoner of war at least twice; accused of espionage and condemned to death; married four times; worked for the Communist Party as a translator; (and in a film studio, with the intention of becoming an actor); made an honorary colonel in the Mexican army and ..... .....was the fourth world chess champion, altogether holding the title for 17 years.
He was born in Moscow into a prominent family: His father was a wealthy landowner and a member of the Russian legislative assembly established by Tsar Nicholas II and his mother was an heiress to an industrial fortune. It was she who taught her sons to play chess.
At the age of 16 he entered the Imperial High School for Law in Moscow. The following year he won a chess tournament in St. Petersburg that gained him the title of Russian master. It was there, in 1914 that he won his first major tournament when he tied for first place with Aron Nimzovich. Legend has it that it was in St. Petersburg a few months later that Tsar Nicholas bestowed the title 'Grandmaster of Chess' on Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall after they had taken the top five places in another major tournament. If not the very first time, this would certainly have been one of the earliest times that the description 'grandmaster' was used.
He was leading an international tournament in Mannheim, Germany when World War I broke out. He was taken prisoner but was released after feigning madness! Making his way back to Russia, he served in the Red Cross on the Austrian front where he was wounded and captured by the Austrians. On his eventual return, the Russians decorated him for bravery.
He finished his legal training and worked in Moscow as a magistrate. In 1919 he was in prison again; this time in a death cell in Odessa on suspicion of espionage. It's said that his life was spared by Leon Trotsky himself. (I wonder if Alekhine ever recalled that Trotsky was the son of a Jewish farmer when twenty years later he was writing his anti-Semitic nonsense for the Nazis.)
In 1920 he won the first USSR chess championship and married a Russian baroness. The following year he left both his wife and the Soviet Union (never to set foot there again), settled in Paris and remarried. A few months later, he abandoned his second wife and moved to Berlin.
In 1925 he became a naturalized French citizen and entered the Sorbonne Law School, writing his thesis on the Chinese prison system. That same year, he broke the world blindfold record by playing 28 games simultaneously, losing just three of them. (He was still exhibiting his prowess in this way in 1933 where, in Chicago, he extended the number to 32.)
His greatest achievement was in winning the world championship from Jose Capablanca in 1927. The match turned out to be a ten week marathon of 34 games. Capablanca had for some time believed that the game held no more secrets for him and his ego had been nourished for too long on the myth of his invincibility. For his part, Alekhine came to the match fiercely determined and thoroughly prepared. In the event, his will was more than a match for Capablanca's complacency. What's more, Capablanca hadn't made it easy for Alekhine to meet the conditions for the title match and he subsequently found that Alekhine could be just as difficult. For the rest of his life, Capablanca never got the chance for revenge.
Having married for the third time shortly before beating Capablanca, Alekhine married wife number four in 1934 - the year he successfully defended his title for the second time against Bogoljubov.
All too often, it seems that arrogance accompanies success. In 1935, with no documents at the Polish border, Alekhine told the border guard, 'I am Alekhine, chess champion of the world. This is my cat. Her name is chess. I need no passport.'
That same year, the unthinkable happened when he lost the world championship to the gentlemanly Dutchman, Max Euwe. It's not certain that the Dutch were aware of Alekhine's problems with alcohol but part of their hospitality included paying Alekhine's bar bill for the duration of the contest. He was definitely not at his best and he lost the match. (It was reported that the defending champion's play was 'strangely uneven'.) He returned in 1937, having not had a drink since losing the title, and became the first player to ever regain the world championship.
With the financial backing of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Botvinnik was due to challenge him next but, for the second time in his life, a world war got in the way of Alekhine's chess. He was representing France at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires when World War II was declared. He was the French captain and refused to allow his team to play Germany. On his return to France, he enlisted as an interpreter in the army but when France was over-run he went to Lisbon and tried to get an American visa.
In 1941, articles written by Alekhine appeared in German newspapers in occupied France and Holland. In typical Nazi style, they attacked the 'defensive thinking' of Jewish chess players who demonstrated a lack of courage or creative ability; the more successful of them being motivated by a lust for money. A chess master who knew him well said later that Alekhine's motivation was quite simple - he had no morals and would do anything for money. By collaborating with the Nazis he protected his assets in France. He played in Nazi chess tournaments in Munich, Salzburg, Warsaw and Prague and by 1943 was spending all of his time in Spain and Portugal as the German representative to chess events. After the war, he denied writing the articles and called them 'a heap of monstrosities'. Later, he claimed that he had been forced to write them, saying that he feared for his wife's safety and that he needed the money. When he died, copies of the articles, certified to be in his handwriting, were found among his effects.
There were calls for FIDE to strip him of his title. Then came a renewed challenge from Botvinnik - together with a large enough purse to persuade the champion to accept it - and, although just recovering from a heart attack, Alekhine agreed to play. The British Chess Federation were due to hold the match in 1946 but during the negotiations Alekhine suffered a fatal heart attack in Estoril, Portugal, and the title didn't become Botvinnik's until 1948. Alekhine left us a treasury of wonderful games. Often as unconventional in his play as in his life, he had a fine appreciation of strategy which enabled him to create positions which were ripe for combinations. He has been called the most complete chess artist in the history of the game.
This charming 15 move brevity isn't in the same league as any one of his more Herculean efforts but when any player wins so crisply when he's down two Rooks and a Knight I think it deserves a second look!
Grandmaster PROFILE No. 3 Robert J. (Bobby) Fischer (born 1943)
'All I want to do, ever, is play chess.'
What can we say here that hasn't already been said about Bobby Fischer? Probably not a lot but, because his impact on the game has been so enormous, he has to be included in any series of profiles of the game's greats. Who knows what legacy of games he might have left us had he done what he said he would do - 'defend the title as often as possible'. Instead, he abandoned it and disappeared for twenty years.
It's no secret that he has frequently been a very difficult (if not impossible) person to deal with and that he has no time for many of the social niceties which most of us would regard as simple, good manners. And yet, while we might find certain of his characteristics unattractive, it isn't right that we should judge him as anything other than a chess player. History records the names of those who have accomplished great things or made important discoveries. The names live on because of what they did, not for whether or not they were easy to get along with. Any field of human endeavour is capable of producing the occasional brilliant eccentric. Bobby Fischer is clearly one of them. Chess has had its share of gifted players who've displayed less enchanting personal qualities; Alekhine was another example.
William Hartston, International Master and former British Champion, describes Fischer like this in his book 'Chess Grandmasters':- 'Great American champion who shattered the belief of the leaders of Soviet chess that a world champion has to be a cultured, well-rounded personality, made in the USSR.' Bobby Fischer was not 'well-rounded'; he spent his every waking hour thinking about chess and how he could take the world crown away from the Soviets who had held it for so long that they almost believed they owned it. Because of his single-mindedness and what he achieved, he gave chess a massive shot in the arm and boosted its popularity worldwide. When he played Spassky for the championship in 1972, he not only increased the prize money of such matches to a level which reflects their importance but he was responsible for huge increases in the sales of chess books etc. and the memberships of many chess clubs throughout the world rocketed.
Let's just take a brief look here at how he first made the chess world sit up and take notice.
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He was born in Chicago on 9 March 1943 and the story goes that when he was six he and his eleven year old sister worked out the moves of the game using a chess set she had bought.
When he was seven he joined the Brooklyn Chess Club in New York and began playing in tournaments five years later. At the tender age of thirteen he won the United States Junior Championship. A few months later he became famous by winning what Hans Kmoch called 'The game of the century' against Donald Byrne, an International Master. (See below)
Irving Chernev said of Fischer's performance, 'It is indeed a remarkable game surpassing in depth of strategy and brilliance of execution any of the productions of Morphy or Reshevsky at a similar age.'
When you play through the game and see the horrible situation Byrne was forced into, you'll not be at all surprised that Bobby Fischer was a chess professional by the time he was 16.
