White to Play

Pete Tamburro on Oct 27, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

This is from a very famous game at New York, 1924, where US Champ Frank Marshall comes up with an attack for the ages. We are giving the whole game because it’s worth playing over. The brilliant moves start earlier than the diagram, so you should look at the previous moves for a real learning experience. Here’s how it started. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5 d5 4.e3 Nbd7 5.c4 c6 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Nc3 Qa5 8.Bd3 Ne4 9.Qc2 Nxg5 10.Nxg5 h6 11.Nf3 Be7 12.0–0 0–0 13.a3 Qd8 14.Rae1 a5 15.Qe2 Nf6 16.Ne5 Bd6 17.f4 c5 18.Bb1 Bd7 19.Qc2 Bc6 20.dxc5 Bxc5 21.Kh1 Re8 22.e4 Bd4 23.Nxc6 bxc6 24.e5 Ng4 25.Qh7+ Kf8 26.g3 Qb6 27.Bf5 Nf2+ 28.Rxf2!! Bxf2 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qxg7 Kd8 31.Qf6+ Re7 32.e6 Bd4 SEE DIAGRAM At this point, Marshall had to calculate it all out to mate or else he wouldn’t win.

You might want to stop after move 36, because at that point Marshall announced the mate all the way up to move 42. 33.exf7 Bxf6 34.f8Q+ Kc7 35.Rxe7+ Bxe7 36.Qxa8 Kd6 37.Qh8 Qd8 38.Qe5+ Kc5 39.Na4+ Kc4 40.Qc3+ Kb5 41.Bd3+ Kxa4 42.Qc2#

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.