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Georg Marco vs Geza Maroczy
"Marco Polo" (game of the day May-19-2012)
2nd Kolisch Memorial, Vienna (1899/00), Vienna AUH, rd 2, Dec-19
French Defense: Exchange Variation (C01)  ·  0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Given 3 times; par: 165 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 3 OF 3 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jun-05-10  SuperPatzer77: Ooops!!! I made a typo - 79. Nb3. The correct one should be 79. Na3.

Correction of my additional analysis is as follows:

White's another try is 79. Na3 (instead of Na1) a1=Q+, 80. Nb1+ Qxb1+!, 81. Kxb1 d2 (Black's d-pawn goes queening and then Black forces mate in three moves).

Sorry, folks!
SuperPatzer77

Jun-05-10  RandomVisitor: 35.Nd3 might be White's last chance to equalize. Afterwards, black seems to have the upper hand:

1: Georg Marco - Geza Maroczy, Kolisch mem 9900 1899


click for larger view

Analysis by Rybka 3 :

<[-0.10] d=36 35.Nd3> a5 36.bxa5+ Kxa5 37.Nc5 Nc2 38.Ke2 N4xa3 39.Nxa3 Nxa3 40.Kd3 Nc4 41.Nd7 f5 42.Nb8 Kb6 43.Nd7+ Ka6 44.Nf8 fxg4 45.fxg4 Ka5 46.Nxg6 Nd6 47.Ne5 Kb6 48.Nd7+ Kc7 49.Ne5 Ne4 50.Kc2

Jun-05-10  smalldreams: Haven't bothered to look at the theory/comments yet, but after 69...Nd3!! white will find it impossible to hold onto his pawns and black will pass at least one.
Sep-14-10  OJC: 78. ...c5 is cute, brought a smile to my face.
Jan-16-12  rudiment: Equine statues
May-19-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: What happens when only one player tries to draw.
May-19-12  xthred: <Phony Benoni> LOL
May-19-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: The pun is a bit obscure, but I'm guessing it refers to the travels of Black's king, from g8 to b6 to h3 to c3 and all points in between.
May-19-12  LoveThatJoker: GG

LTJ

May-19-12  backrank: One of the most remarkable endgames ever, and as far as I remember, Maroczy received a special prize for that achievement.
May-19-12  stunningmove: Phony: I think the pun refers to the game "Marco Polo" and the name of the player of the white pieces. In the game the first player is blindfolded and attempts to find the second. He calls out "marco" the second replying "polo" and tries to locate him by sound. All the copying of moves mimics the game. "marco" "polo" "marco" "polo"
May-19-12  kevin86: Black gives up knight for the entourage of pawns.

MARCO POLO-seems to be a pun on the name of the loser,Marco-plus the great travels of the king.

I noticed the king side pawns-first all doubled on the g file-then orderly two to two-then blocked one to one.

May-19-12  lemaire90: It seems all white did the whole game was trade pieces off... I don't see any attempt to coordinate his pieces for an attack. All these trades gave black a better shot at the endgame.
May-19-12  lemaire90: Like, look at white's play from move 30 to move 50... Ke2, Kf2, Ke2, Kf2 back and fourth back and fourth back and fourth... really ? Trading down all the pieces but the knights in the first 30 moves to then wait around on black to find something constructive to do to finish you off ? Probably far from Marco's best game.
May-19-12  Garech: Fantastic! Really enjoyed this one. Cheers,

-Garech

May-19-12  stardust762: Maybe Polo is due to the Ralph Lauren Polo shirts and its logo - only the "horses" are left among the pieces, combined with the name of the great explorer and one of the players.
May-19-12  drpoundsign: dont see endgames like that much nowadays. coulda named the game Maroczy Unbound
May-21-12  theNonexistentKnight: 28. Nb1?

Two knights in the back row against two knights in the center just doesn't seem like a good idea.

In my opinion, it would be more solid to go

28. Nxc4 Nxc4 29. Nc2

or even

28. Nb3 Nxa3 29. Nc5

Dec-26-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: You might get the impression from the opening that Marco was not the Nezhmetdinov of his day. Well, I mean to tell you. Look what happened in the very next round:

<Zinkl - Marco>
<1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 d6 7.Bxc6 Bxc3 8.Bxb7 Bxb2 9.Bxa8 Bxa1 10.Be3 Be6 11.Qxa1 Qxa8 12.c4 c5 13.Rb1 Rb8>


click for larger view

<14.Rb2 Bc8!!>

And the crowd goes wild! Hey, so would you after being awakened from a sound slumber. (OK, to be fair, Black cannot retain the symmetry anyway after 14...Rb7 15.Qb1.)

<15.Qb1 Rxb2 16.Qxb2 Qb7 17.Qxb7 Bxb7 18.Bg5 Ne8 19.Be7 f6 20.Kf1 Kf7 21.Bd8 Ke6 22.g4 Kd7 23.Ba5 g6 24.Ke2 Ng7 25.h3 Ne6 26.Bd2 Bc6 27.Be3 Ba4 28.Kd2 g5 29.Ng1 Bc6 30.Ne2 Ng7> ½-½

Georg Marco: Wild and Crazy Guy!

Apr-08-14  Morphized: I like Maroczy's patience... On move 30 he completely killed his opponent's counterplay, then he went like "meh, there might be things going on to the queenside... let's shift to the king to the queenside!", and once it was done, he went like "meh, time to go back to the queenside. ", then he slowly but surely invaded white's position, created a ton of passed pawns and won. That was cool! :D
Apr-08-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Clever last-ditch stalemate effort at the end, but that wily fox Maroczy was not to be denied.
May-17-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: THe "Minneapolis Journal", February 10, 1900, has this interesting comment after <21...Qe7>:

<"Appreciating the perfect evenness of the position, the combatants at this juncture agreed upon a draw. The tournament committee, however, objected to the abandonment of the game as conflicting with one of the rules of the tournament, which provided that no game should be given a draw unless it had run for thirty moves at least. The Hungarian>[Maroczy] <replied that, as it was the privilege of the players to repeat moves, the compliance with that rule would be an empty form. Herr Marco, however, thought it unfair to circumvent the rule in that manner.">

http://www.chessarch.com/excavation...

The "Journal" gives no source for this statement (and I doubt they had a reporter on the scene), but it deserves to be researched for authenticity. If true, it would be an interesting insight into the psychology of the players, as well as one of the few times in history that something good came out of a Tournament Committee's decree.

But again, let me emphasize that I know of no confirmation of this anecdote at present.

Feb-25-16
Premium Chessgames Member
  Jonathan Sarfati: One of the few cases where knights are strong protecting each other. Neither could be undermined.
Nov-10-17  dumbgai: When playing for a draw with white goes wrong.
Aug-01-20  nummerzwei: <Phony Benoni>: The Minneapolis Journal's anecdote also appears in Walter Arpad Földeak's 1970 monograph on Maroczy ('Geza Maroczy - Leben und Lehren'), also referring to move 21, but with an important difference:

<It was here that Marco offered a draw, which Maroczy declined through the tournament director, pointing out that agreeing a draw before move 30 was not allowed by the tournament regulations.> (p.21)

As far as the game was concerned, 26.b4?! was completely unnecessary. Presumably Marco wanted to play Nd3-Nc5xa6, missing 27.Nd3 Na4!. After 26.Nd3 there's nothing going on.

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