Frank Marshall Swindles Rook Down!

Warm greetings dear chess players!

Today I uncovered a chess treasure that I am sure you will enjoy!

In this game from 1923 Frank Marshall was playing white against AJ McClure. Unfortunately the previous moves of the game remain undocumented and have been lost in time. 

You are indeed seeing the board correctly here! The legendary Frank Marshall who was one of the strongest players of his time and American champion from 1909 to 1936 is down a rook in this position! Feel free to write down in the comment sections if you would resign as white in this position or if you would fight on!

Frank Marshall was known for being a notorious swindler and it is rather note-worthy that he said “To win a winning position is the most difficult thing in chess”. He even published a book in 1914 Marshall´s Chess Swindles and “Marshall swindle is a term in his name”. 

*source Steemit

If you turn on the engine it deems all moves as losing. However, Frank Marshall is playing against a human and seizes another opportunity to go for a swindle. 1.c6 attacking the black rook. Where to move the rook now? 1...Rd8 gives away the f7 pawn and so does Rd6. Does this move mean that Re7 is the best move? It turns out that it was possible to go 1...Rd8 in this position and meet Rxf7 with Kb8 simply defending the pawn and white is still down a rook. This would win the game. Rd6 is fact draws the game, but I will show you later how.

1...Re7 is played. As explained by Mark Dvoretsky a common chess sin is materialism; the in-desire to give away material to our opponent. Naturally just giving away material is not good, but over-evaluating it can sometimes backfire as well. 

*Wikipedia Mark Dvoretsky (1947-2016)

2.h7 What to play now as black? The h-pawn is one move away from the promotion square. How to stop it?  Now Re8 departing with the f7 pawn would lead to a victory after 3.Rxf7 Kb8 4.Rg7 and 4... Rd8 stopping Rg8 promoting the white pawn. However it seemed as if black continued to suffer from materialism and played. 2...Rh5. 2...Rd8 draws as well why I will show later. Right now it is a draw by force in fact.

The move is 3.Rh6 giving away the rook and after 3...Rxh6 4.h8=Q+ forcing 4...Rxh8. You might be thinking what? We have just given away the pride of our position, first our rook and then a pawn close to promoting? Well it turns out that after b5 black can not avoid stalemate. This being despite the two additional rooks. Black can be creative and play 5...Rd7 6.cxd however white will still go d8=Q+ forcing black to take and making the game result in a stalemate. 

If black still tries to win with 6...c6 they are losing in fact! 7.bxc threatening 8.c7 and after 8...Kb8 Kb6 reinforcing the threat of c7 which is now impossible to stop.

Now if black would have played Rd6 first move there is 2.Rxd6 forcing 2...Rxd6 as taking with the pawn would result in a loss even after c7 and the pawn can not be stopped. After 2...Rxd6 there is 3.h7 Rh6 4.h8=Q+ and after 4...Rxh8 there is b5 with the same unpreventable stalemate. After 2...Rd8 there is 3.Rxf7 Rxf7 4.h8=Q with the same unpreventable stalemate. However, black can choose to not take the white rook and simply side-step with their´s. However then white has Rxc7 when the b6 pawn is very weak and white has many strong pawns close to promoting. The white king is also very active. The computer evaluates this position as unclear but roughly equal too. 

I hope the stalemate in the end of this game made you were a smile!

On that note, if you have any question or want to see this game in video form I have made a premier YouTube video starting in 3 hours! You will be able to interact directly with me when the video is played!

You can access it by pressing the following image:

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