Frank Marshall, United States Chess Champion: A Biography With 220 Games

Rating:
Summary: Superb biography of a leading player of his day
Review: GM Andy Soltis certainly knows how to write fine books, and this is one of them. Even non-Americans should appreciate a book about this US Champion who was also one of the world's top 10 for almost 30 years.

The book covers Marshall's life set in its historical context, and also lightly annotates many Marshall games, including some draws and losses. Marshall was famous for his combinational ability, but Soltis shows that he had confidence, with good reason, of being able to outplay many opponents in the endgame.

Marshall's skill should not be underestimated although he lost matches decisively to Lasker and Capablanca. He won the enormously strong Cambridge Springs tournament of 1904 ahead of then world champ Lasker. At St Petersburg 1914, he was one of the five finalists, and Tsar Nicholas II awarded these players the original grandmaster title. In the mid 1920s, Marshall showed that he could cope with the new hypermoderns. Even in the 1930s, when his strength had lessened somewhat, he captained to USA team to victory four times at the Olympiads, and the USA teams have never risen to the same heights since.

Last but not least, as a keen player of the Marshall Attack against the Rúy López, it was interesting to read about its genesis.

Rating:
Summary: Superb biography of a leading player of his day
Review: GM Andy Soltis certainly knows how to write fine books, and this is one of them. Even non-Americans should appreciate a book about this US Champion who was also one of the world's top 10 for almost 30 years.

The book covers Marshall's life set in its historical context, and also lightly annotates many Marshall games, including some draws and losses. Marshall was famous for his combinational ability, but Soltis shows that he had confidence, with good reason, of being able to outplay many opponents in the endgame.

Marshall's skill should not be underestimated although he lost matches decisively to Lasker and Capablanca. He won the enormously strong Cambridge Springs tournament of 1904 ahead of then world champ Lasker. At St Petersburg 1914, he was one of the five finalists, and Tsar Nicholas II awarded these players the original grandmaster title. In the mid 1920s, Marshall showed that he could cope with the new hypermoderns. Even in the 1930s, when his strength had lessened somewhat, he captained to USA team to victory four times at the Olympiads, and the USA teams have never risen to the same heights since.

Last but not least, as a keen player of the Marshall Attack against the Rúy López, it was interesting to read about its genesis.

Rating:
Summary: Quality reading
Review: I think Frank Marshall fans will find this book invaluable,it features many of his best games and plus it gives a good biography as the book progresses, perhaps the games could use some more notes but what is there is good enough.

Rating:
Summary: THE definitive book on Marshall ...
Review: I used to have this book, I broke my own rules and lent it to a student and friend ... and he left Pensacola. (I never saw him, ... or the book again. But in his defense, he was in the Navy, and they move those guys around a lot.)
I also used to have an original copy of Marshall's book, but I have lost that over the years, too.

But the book is absolutely a treasure, I borrowed a friend's copy to do this review. (For accuracy's sake.)

I am too young to have known the man. (I played my first chess tournament in 1966.) But I knew Mr. Marshall's wife (Carrie) quite well. For many, many years; she was the lady who sat at the foot of the stairs and greeted you as you walked into the Marshall chess club. I feel very badly - I wish someone had told me who she was the first time I visited there. The Marshall's are a HUGE part of the history of the game of chess, at least here in the U.S.

What do you get when you buy this book? Quite simply one of the very best chess books ever written, at least in the area of a (chess) biography. It is very clear and very obvious that this book has been researched to a level I personally have never seen before.

By comparison, I am interested in history and very fascinated with several figures in history, notably Abe Lincoln and Andrew Jackson. (Among others.) I have read virtually every book I could get my hands on about these two persons ... and in the process I have found literally hundreds of mistakes. (One authors' chronological record itself was ridiculous, he had Jackson - MANY TIMES!! - in two different places at the same time!)

But in Soltis's book, I have yet to find a single error. This might be because Marshall himself left a tremendous amount of material behind. He wrote several books, kept journals, and filled literally hundreds of yellow legal pads with notes of his own. And the people who actually knew Frank Marshall told me he had a fabulous memory.

The former secretary of the club personally told me that Soltis spent hundreds and hundreds of hours there, pouring over records, making notes, and making copies of the material that is available there.

The result? A simply fabulous book that is virtually free of errors. I am NOT saying Andy made no mistakes, every human does. But Andy has worked VERY hard on producing a document/book that is about as error-free as any person could humanly try to do. Andy has gone well above and beyond the call of duty here.

"What about the book," you say? Well, it too is beautiful. A gorgeous hard-back book that is nearly 400 pages in length. 220 very deeply annotated games. Additionally, there are DOZENS of game fragments.

Personally, I do NOT think you would buy this book if your only interest was to improve your game, there are simply too many other good books devoted to that subject. (Check out the books by Capa, Reinfeld, Watson and Yermolinsky.) No, you would buy this book for many reasons - maybe because you consider yourself a Marshall fan. Or you consider yourself a student chess history, and want to learn more. And maybe you think you might benefit from studying one of the greatest tactical players the USA ever produced.

All the bases are covered here. A thorough index, photo's, match and tournament record ... quite simply there is not a topic or subject here that you can't think of that Soltis has not covered in great detail. (On page # 203 you can find Marshall's famous victory over Levitsky, Breslau; 1912.)

The only topic that I could not find was the list of Marshall's best games; perhaps Soltis did not feel qualified to make that judgment. You have over 200 of Marshall's games here, so after playing through them all, you could do your own list. (My own choice would have to come from one of the games from his monumental win at Cambridge Springs, 1904.)

If you are a fan of Soltis, as I am ... or want to learn more about chess history, then get this book. I will say no more.