Stefan Levitsky vs. Frank Marshall, The Gold Coins Game!
The Gold Coin's Game was a game that was played between Stefan Levitsky with White and Frank Marshall with the Black pieces. It is known as the Gold Coin's Game because of the Brilliant Queen sac on the last move by Black. And the Queen sac is known as the Gold Coin Move.
In the "Gold Coin Move", white moves his queen into a Sham Sacrifice, where its not attack by 1 but 3 pieces (2 Pawns and a Queen). But he can regain the material or mate the White King if its accepted. The game was played on 20 July 1912 in the 18th DSB Congress.
In the last position if White goes:
- hxg3 , then Ne2# is a checkmate as the rook guards the h-file. Knight= Attacker, Rook= Watchman.
- fxg3, then Ne2+, Kh8 and Rxf8# is a checkmate.
- So the only good move is Qxg3, but after Ne2+ Kh1 and Nxg3+, black is completely winning and thus White resigned.
So, in the position in the game where I said that white has only 1 good move, what would you play to keep the game equal? Its not a puzzle , but you have to keep the game equal.
According to legend, the magnificence of Marshall's move inspired spectators to shower the board with Gold Pieces! Thus giving the game the name of the "Gold Coins Game"!
