[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: This Week's ChessBase Show: Marshall-Lasker, 1907

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
This Week's ChessBase Show: Marshall-Lasker, 1907
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1221625745.shtml


   One of the first great American players was Frank Marshall
   (1877-1944). His fame continues to the present day on account of his
   gambit in the Ruy Lopez, and his contributions to opening theory go
   far beyond that one idea. He was the shock winner of the very strong
   Cambridge Springs tournament of 1904, U.S. Champion from 1909 to 1936,
   one of the original five players dubbed grandmasters (at St.
   Petersburg 1914) and an enormously important figure in American chess.
   Furthermore, his founding and securing the Marshall Chess Club (which
   continues to thrive to the present day) is almost as important as his
   great successes on the chess board.
   Marshall, then, is one of the great figures of early 20th century
   chess. But there's great, and then there's great, and when Marshall
   played a world championship match against Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941)
   in 1907, that difference became clear. Lasker, who was not only the
   world champion from 1894-1921 but also had a Ph.D. in mathematics,
   faced off against the American in a race to eight wins. Nowadays a
   match like that might take six months to a year to finish, but in
   their contest Lasker dismantled Marshall, winning the eighth game
   without a single loss and only seven draws. Thud.
   Despite the lopsided result, almost all of the games were interesting
   and most carried through to the endgame. That's what happened in the
   first game of this match, which we shall examine tonight (Wednesday at
   9 p.m. ET) in our weekly ChessBase show. After a strategically
   interesting but brief middlegame, the players reached a rook and minor
   piece ending. With best play, it would have been equal, but Lasker's
   virtuoso treatment Marshall needed to play very accurately to hold -
   and he didn't. This got Lasker off to a great start, and with wins in
   the next two games as well he never looked back.
   There are, as always, good reasons to tune in tonight, and this is
   especially the case if you're a 1.e4 e5 player. Though our game this
   week arose via a minor Berlin sideline, the pawn structure is one that
   can occur in the Scotch and the Two Knights, and as such is one that
   ought to be understood by 1...e5 aficionados. Additionally, it's
   simply a great ending by Lasker, and for those with eyes to see, there
   are lessons to be learned. So please join me tonight - the show is
   free and runs an hour or so; just go to the broadcast room of the
   Playchess.com server, select the Marshall-Lasker game at the relevant
   hour, and enjoy! (Further directions [1]here.) Hope to see you there.

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1114234449.shtml