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Frank Marshall vs Henry Atkins
8th Anglo-American Cable Match (1903), London ENG / New York USA, rd 1, Apr-03
Slav Defense: General (D10)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-11-04  Resignation Trap: I looked at this game just last night, and it seems to be a classic Marshall Swindle. White's "attack" from moves 11-13 leads to an inferior game, and after 24 moves he seems crushed. Then Marshall uncorks 25. b3!!

Marshall intended to play (after 25. b3 Rxc3) 26. Rxc3 Bxc3 27. Rxc3 Qxc3 28. Qe7! forcing a draw, but 27. Qe7! (one move earlier) is better.

After 29. Qd6!! Black is totally defenseless.

Feb-12-04  Calli: I think 29...Kxf6?? is a blunder. If he plays 29...Qd3, the game continues.
Feb-12-04  notsodeepthought: I agree - taking the knight was just greedy. Unless, of course, Atkins' diet forced him to eat horse meat... (ok, it's getting late, I'll shut up now).
May-19-04  nikolaas: <Calli> 29....Qd3 is not THAT good. There could follow: 30.Ne4 (now the queen may not be taken because of 30....Qxd6 31.Nxd6+ and Nxc8) and whit is threatening Nxg5, after wich black is lost but also 31.Qxd3 Bxd3 32.Nd6+ and Nxc8.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

May-19-04  clocked: the knight is on f6 not f5, so there is no fork. 29...Qd3 Nxh7 Qxd6 Bxd6
May-19-04  Calli: <nikolaas> black can check with the rook first to get it out of the danger 30.Ne4 Rc1+ 31.Qxe4 etc
May-20-04  nikolaas: <Calli> I guess I talk too much... I know I'd better shut up, but I can't.

<clocked> If white plays 30.Nxh7, why not Rc1+ and Qxh7? Perhaps (or rather probably) I'm wrong again, but I don't see the point.

May-20-04  clocked: because white either mates or wins the queen after Qd7+
Jun-02-09  epiglottis5: 25...Qc5 seems best after 25.b3
Jun-27-09  WhiteRook48: the position is very unclear
Aug-25-09  WhiteRook48: or 32 g4#
Dec-02-10  muwatalli: 25 b3 is a fairly amazing swindle, i suppose white should have simply accepted the ending with a rook for piece and 2 pawns after 29 Qd3 Nxh7 30 Qxd6 Bxd6 etc.. i saw this game in his "my 50 years of chess" and he doesn't even mention 29 Qd3 but his annotations are rather sparse compared to most chess books through-out, so i was not so suprised by that.
Nov-29-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sally Simpson: ***

This was a Marshall 'Swindle' at a cable match! (actually Marshall and Pillsbury went to London and played their opponents face to face OTB. T F Lawrence vs Pillsbury, 1903 )


click for larger view

Here Atkins should have played 25..Qc5 when Black has nothing better to swap Queens and the pressure down the c-file favours Black and should be winning.

Instead Napier smelt a rat and saw if 25...Rxc3 26.Rxc3 Bxc3 27.Rxc3 Qc3 28.Qe7


click for larger view

Black has a perpetual.

So back here:


click for larger view

Napier played 25...Rc5 to avoid the perpetual and Marshall played his trump card 26.Nxd5 Rxc2 27. Rxc2 Qxc2 28.Nxf6+ Kf7 29.Qd6


click for larger view

Still refusing to allow a Marshall a drawn position with 29..Qd3 or 29..Rc7 Napier took the f6 Knight and walked into a mate.

***

Jan-26-21  sudoplatov: Checking a few of the critical moves using Stockfish shows that up to 24.Qa3, the game was almost even. With White to move, SF shows Black with a slight advantage and with Black to move, WF shows even. 24.Qa3 should lose at least a Pawn but 24...Rc5 allows a Draw. The real blunder was 29...Kf6 which leads to a forced mate in 9. Perhaps time pressure?

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