A Century of Chess: Marshall-Janowski 1912

Marshall and Janowski played five matches (!) against each other, for a total of 80 games, more encounters than any other pair of players until Botvinnik-Smyslov. This was match four, sponsored by Nardus, Janowski’s indefatigable patron, and held in Biarritz. Janowski had won their previous match in 1908 but Marshall was aging better - and he easily won both this match and their next and last match in 1916. "I had the satisfaction of trouncing my ancient rival in decisive fashion," wrote Marshall of this match. Both players were true chess addicts, coffee house players but elevated to world class level, and all of their matches have the brilliant, ragged quality of the games you play when you’ve spent too many hours at the chess club. “You had to get him before he got you,” wrote Marshall in his memoirs. Both players were fully devoted to tactics, bidding, often recklessly, for the initiative, looking for shots around every corner and playing for tricks long after they were ‘objectively’ lost. Janowski drew first blood with a swindle, but Marshall uncorked a brilliancy in Game 3 - which may well have been the best game of his career. 

That gave him the momentum he needed and he cruised the rest of the way, winning five games against only one loss. The match for some reason became a test of the Petroff Defense, which wasn’t very popular in that era - and it’s instructive how two great tacticians can find combinations even in a placid opening.

Sources: I am grateful to simaginfan for some contemporary notes on the match. Here is the write-up of Game 3 in The Year Book of Chess (with the notes translated from the Deutsche Schachzeitung).

The match is discussed in Frank Marshall's My Fifty Years of Chess. Contemporary photos can be found on Edward Winter's site.