Author: Marshall, Frank James (1877-1944) signed
Year: 1942
Publisher: Horowitz and Harkness
Place: New York
Description:
vi+242 pages with 13 illustrations, portraits and diagrams with index. Octavo (8 3/4" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering with in a black box on cover and spine in original red dust jacket with a picture of Marshall on front cover and white lettering. Volume 2 in the chess classic series. Signed limited edition of which this is 150 of 500 copies. (Betts: 29-72) This signed limited edition in not referenced in Betts. First edition.
Frank James Marshall (August 10, 1877 - November 9, 1944) was the U.S. Chess Champion from 1909 to 1936, and one of the world's strongest chess players in the early part of the 20th century. Marshall was born in New York City, and lived in Montreal, Canada, from age 8 to 19. He began playing chess at the age of 10, and by 1890 (aged 13) was one of the leading players in Montreal. He won the 1904 Cambridge Springs International Chess Congress (scoring 13/15, ahead of World Champion Emanuel Lasker) and the U.S. congress in 1904, but did not get the national title because the U.S. champion at that time, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, did not compete. In 1906 Pillsbury died and Marshall again refused the championship title until he won it in competition in 1909. In 1907 he played a match against World Champion Emanuel Lasker for the title and lost eight games, winning none and drawing seven. They played their match in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, and Memphis from January 26 to April 8, 1907. Marshall finished fifth at the St. Petersburg tournament in 1914, behind World Champion Lasker, future World Champions Capablanca and Alekhine, and former World Championship challenger Tarrasch, but ahead of the players who did not qualify for the final: Ossip Bernstein, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Blackburne, Janowski, and Gunsberg. In 1915 Marshall opened the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. In the 1930s Marshall captained the U.S. team to four gold medals at four Chess Olympiads. During one round, he returned to the board and found that his teammates had agreed to three draws. After he finished his own game, he gave each of them a stern talk individually on how draws do not win matches. Marshall was best known for his great tactical skill. One aspect of this was the "Marshall swindle", where a trick would turn a lost game around. Andrew Soltis writes that, "In later years his prowess at rescuing the irretrievable took on magical proportions". Not so well known now, but appreciated in his day, was his endgame skill.
Condition:
Jacket spine sunned, corners chipped, spine ends chipped else a very good to fine copy in a very good jacket.
SOLD 2018