<DURAS IS FORCED TO RESIGN

After Long Consideration Chess Master Selects Weak Continuation

"United States Champion Frank J. Marshall beat the Bohemian champion, Oldrich Duras, after thirty-six hours [!] in the first match game of a series of five at the Manhattan Chess Club yesterday. The former had the move and selected a queen's gambit declined for the opening. This was declined by the second player somewhat irregularly and it seemed as if Marshall got somewhat of a pull right from the start.

"As is his custom Duras employed an extraordinarily long time for the consideration of his moves and at his twenty-first turn he had only seven minutes left for making thirty moves within the time limit of two hours. Strange to say, he managed to complete his series of thirty moves without compromising his position, neither did he lose anything in material.

"When called upon to make his thirty-second move he took fully half an hour for consideration and then it was found he had selected a very weak variation. Four moves later Marshall threatened to win a rook and so Duras resigned.">

I do believe "hours" in the first paragraph was supposed to be "moves". Admittedly, it may have seemed that long to the reporter. I also wonder if Duras's 32nd move was sealed. At the time, a short dinner break after the first time control was a common practice.

Final result of the series:

First game of the match? You don't resign until the last drop of blood.

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Black has just played 32...Rd7, threatening ...Nxb4. The game continues:

33.b5?? axb5?? 34.axb5?? Nd8?? 35.Nf3 Nf7?? 36.Re1 winning the queen.

35....Nf7 is the sort of blunder even strong masters are occasionally liable to make. But could Marshall and Duras jointly have overlooked ...Nb4 four times?