Background

Frank James Marshall was born on August 10, 1877 in New York City. He was the second of seven sons of Alfred George and Sarah Ann (Graham) Marshall. His father, a flour mill salesman, was a native of London, England; his mother was of Scotch-Irish descent.

Education

When Frank was eight his family moved from New York to Montreal, where he attended public schools through high school. At the age of ten Marshall had begun to learn chess from his father, a competent amateur, and within a year he was able to give his father a rook and still win.

Career

He began competing at the Hope Coffee House and then joined the Montreal Chess Club. Preoccupied with chess, he studied and replayed the games of the great master Paul Charles Morphy. At the age of sixteen he became champion of the Montreal club and, at a simultaneous blindfold exhibition held there, won a game from Harry N. Pillsbury, then the American champion. In 1896 the family returned to New York, where Marshall soon established himself as a top player in the metropolitan area. In 1899, after he had captured the championship of the famous Brooklyn Chess Club, the Brooklyn and Manhattan chess clubs raised funds to send him to the London International Tournament. Much to his disappointment, he found that he was not considered eminent enough to play in the masters' division, but in a lesser group that included two well-known players Marshall won, 8 1/2-2 1/2.

Marshall died of a heart attack in 1944 while visiting in Jersey City, N. J. After Presbyterian services, his ashes were buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Flushing, N. Y.

Achievements

• Frank Marshall considered as one of the world's strongest chess players in the early part of the 20th century. In the international tournament in Paris the following year he tied for third place, but in individual games defeated both Pillsbury and Emanuel Lasker, the world's champion. In 1904 at the international tournament held in Cambridge Springs, Pa. , which was attended by the leading American and European players, he achieved perhaps his greatest triumph by finishing in first place, having won eleven games and drawn four. During his later career he won firsts in tournaments at Monte Carlo (1904), St. Louis (1904), Scheveningen (1905), Barmen (1905), Nuremberg (1906), Düsseldorf (1908), New York (1911), Budapest (1912), Havana (1913), Lake Hopatcong (1924), and Chicago (1926). He placed second, third, or fourth at many other tournaments, and also played a large number of individual matches, although in general he performed more brilliantly when stimulated by the presence of an audience. His most famous game, featuring a magnificent Queen sacrifice, was that against S. Lewitsky, at Breslau in 1912. His main contributions to chess theory were in the Max Lange opening, the Marshall Gambit in the Semi-Slav Defense, and the Marshall Counter Attack in the Ruy Lopez opening. In 1915 Marshall established a Chess Divan in New York, initially at Keene's Chop House, as a meeting place for lovers of the game. This was succeeded in 1922 by the Marshall Chess Club, located eventually on West 10th Street in quarters purchased for him by admirers in 1931.

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Fifty Years of Chess

    (Frank Marshall?s watchwords were brilliancy and attack! F...)

  • Comparative Chess

    (Discusses various matches and changes in the game of ches...)

  • Chess in an Hour

    (Paperback, as pictured; small tear on cover edge (sp))

  • Chess: Step by Step

Personality

Like most chess masters, Marshall supported himself by teaching, exhibitions, and prize money. After Pillsbury's death in 1906 Marshall was regarded as the United States champion, although he did not accept the title until 1909, when he won a match against Pillsbury's predecessor, Jackson W. Showalter. He held the championship until his retirement in 1936. Marshall's playing style made him popular with spectators. It was attacking, combinative, open, of the Romantic school. He achieved many successes with it, but too often discovered it did not work against positional masters. Eventually he modified it and adopted a balanced approach, although he always enjoyed taking the offensive. Life magazine described Marshall in his last years as a "preoccupied old gentleman who looks like a Shakespearean actor. " Well dressed, he usually wore a lavaliere tie and gray spats. A charming host, modest and kindly, he encouraged a generation of visiting players, both tyros and masters, at his various clubs. He believed that anybody could learn to play chess and that "its delights and rewards are endless, " and he devoted a lifetime to the game.

Connections

On January 6, 1905, Marshall married Caroline D. Kraus of Brooklyn, N. Y. , who served as his business manager and as secretary of the Marshall Chess Club. Their only child was Frank J. Marshall, Jr.

Father:

Alfred George

Mother:

Sarah Ann (Graham) Marshall

Wife:

Caroline D. Kraus

Son:

Frank J. Marshall, Jr

References

• Hundert Jahre Schachzweikämpfe 1851 - 1950, Die bedeutendsten Schachzwekämpfe, Mit e. Übersicht der Spielerfolge der grössten Schachmeister
• The World's Great Chess Games
• Masters of the Chessboard, 21st Century Edition