Career
In 1907 he took second, behind Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, in Street St. Petersburg. He lost a match to Simon Alapin 0-5 at Street St. Petersburg 1907. In 1913 he lost a match to Alexander Alekhine 3-7 in Street St. Petersburg.
He introduced the Queen"s Bishop Attack, known as the Levitsky Attack (1d4 d5 2Bg5) in the Queen"s Pawn Game (Ecology code D00).
But Levitsky is perhaps best remembered by chess players today as the loser in a famous game against Frank Marshall at Breslau 1912, see Levitsky versus Marshall. Marshall (with the Black pieces) concluded with the stunning 23..Qg3!!, which would have forced White to capture Black"s Queen to prevent immediate checkmate.
Unfortunately for Levitsky, this would have left Marshall with a choice of three different forced mates in the next one, two or three moves. Levitsky resigned. According to legend, the beauty of Marshall"s final combination so moved the spectators that they showered the board with gold pieces.