Capablanca v Marshall, New York 1918: the Marshall Attack

José Raúl Capablanca played this game against Frank Marshall, then the United States champion, in the first round of a masters' tournament at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York on 23 October 1918. Marshall's 8...d5 gave the opening its name, the Marshall Attack. Capablanca, caught by surprise, had to solve the problems at the board. He won, and went on to win the tournament without losing a game.

A popular story says Marshall had saved the gambit for years to use against Capablanca. The chess historian Edward Winter calls that a myth: between 1910 and 1918 Capablanca opened 1.e4 against Marshall six times, and Marshall answered with the Petroff Defence five times and the French once. The move 8...d5 had also been played before.

Black to move after 8.c3. Marshall's next move gives a pawn for an attack.

The whole game

Capablanca v Marshall, New York 1918. Step through all 36 moves.

What Stockfish makes of it

We had Stockfish check every move.

8...d5: the gambit

Capablanca judged the pawn sacrifice dangerous for White in practice, but thought White should come out ahead. Stockfish agrees: after 8...d5 White is a little better, by less than half a pawn. Black's 11...Nf6, later replaced by 11...c6, and 13...Ng4 each gave a little more away; Stockfish prefers 11...Bb7 and 13...Re8.

15...Nxf2: Marshall's mistake

15...Nxf2 16.Re2 Bg4 17.hxg4 Bh2+ 18.Kf1 Bg3 19.Rxf2 Qh1+ 20.Ke2 Bxf2.

Capablanca thought 15...Nxf2 was very likely a mistake and suggested 15...h5 instead. Stockfish agrees: about three-quarters of a pawn worse for Black after 15...h5, against one and a half after 15...Nxf2. Garry Kasparov later credited Shamkovich with 15...h5; Winter points out that Capablanca had suggested it in the tournament book. 17.hxg4 was White's only strong reply.

21.Bd2 and the king walk

21.Bd2 Bh4 22.Qh3 Rae8+ 23.Kd3 Qf1+ 24.Kc2: White's king walks to safety on the queenside.

With his king in the open, Capablanca developed the bishop with 21.Bd2 rather than taking on f2 at once. Stockfish rates 21.Kd2 slightly stronger, but both keep White about two pawns better. Then the king walks to c2, out of reach: 23.Kd3 was the only move that kept White's advantage.

The finish

27.dxc5! Bxc5 28.b4 ... 36.Bxf7+: White's b-pawn runs, and the end is forced.

27.dxc5 was the only move that kept White's full advantage, and White's queenside pawns decide. After 36.Bxf7+ Stockfish finds mate in five, which is what Capablanca said in his own book, My Chess Career; his note in the tournament book gives mate in six. Marshall resigned.

How we checked

The moves: no Wikipedia or ChessBase page prints the full score. We used the score printed in The Daily Star (2 September 2005) and on chesstrapguide.com, which agree move for move, and checked the first 20 moves against Edward Winter's article on the game. We replayed every move with python-chess: all are legal.
The engine: Stockfish 16.1 checked every move at depth 22, and the key moments again at depth 26. "A pawn better" is Stockfish's measure of the position, not a count of material.
The history and the named opinions (Capablanca, Kasparov, Winter) are from Winter's article; the tournament result from Sam Kahn's article on Chess.com.

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