An Unbelievable Mate

Submitted by RookHouse on Mon, 02/09/2009 at 6:45pm.

During my extensive research on Jackson Showalter, I recently came across an article from 1916 that details an inexplicable eleven move checkmate suffered by then American chess champion Frank Marshall at a Brooklyn, New York simul. 

The article from the April 23rd, 1916 edition of the Washington Post is shown on my website at www.rookhouse.com/blog and the moves of the game are given below:

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Comments:

by kingforce - 8 months ago
London United Kingdom
Member Since: Sep 2008
Member Points: 476

move 7 and move 8 was the blunder, Qe2, nice to bring out the weakness!! really, just to mention Goran_10-15-85 point, the victory has you say at move three is rubbish, white sac's a few pawns for early development, if white knows how to play it, lookup the Danish openings,

To what windows said, Bc4 does do something Bc4 is the normal follow up, at move 6, just after the castle white looks, fine, now what is needed is, Nc3, re1 and h3 with a queen on D1 of course, 

Against a good player black will give back the material (pawns) for a chance to develop, otherwise white will storm ahead, 

very nice game

by fammy - 8 months ago
amsterdam Netherlands
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 3

mate in 2 moves, wow, i guess they were playing in Chess.com, and white have a bad mouse by playing g4 instead of g3.i like the game,better than early draw.

by slycooper542 - 8 months ago
United States
Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 46

I've seen mate in 4 moves it was in my chess book.

by chAmPheSs - 8 months ago
Mississauga Canada
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 86

That is totaly unexpected. The opening was greatly in favour of black though.

by Goran_10-15-85 - 8 months ago
Doboj Bosnia-Herzegovina
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 268

By the move 3 Black already have a victory ...big advantage lets say, so, nice but not suprise, bad opening for white if u ask me..

by Windows-7_ - 8 months ago
Mountain View United States
Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 3275

White should have played 4.Nxc3 with a much better game. Bc4 does nothing

by rjane04 - 8 months ago
Santo Domingo, Nueva Ecija Philippines
Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 75

poor gameplay by white... there are lots of variation if he only moved the right pieces at the right time. but in this case it is obvious that mate is coming in h3... maybe white overlooked that move.

by pyre_phire - 8 months ago
Portsmouth United Kingdom
Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 47

Looks like something that would happen to me, after a bit of black's development I thought he'd go ahead and take the extra pawn than let white take it with the developing Nc3.

by Crazy_Turk - 8 months ago
Turkey
Member Since: Feb 2009
Member Points: 11

making lots of blunders always bring the lost Laughing

by bigdoug - 8 months ago
Connecticut United States
Member Since: Dec 2008
Member Points: 488

I think it is great that you find these games from history and show them.

by ahmetom734 - 8 months ago
Bosnia\Sarajevo - Turkey\Istanbul Bosnia-Herzegovina
Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 6

another variation about c4 takes f7+ then if the king doesnt take the bishop which is a better option queen can move to e5 threatening to take one of those black knight on d4 takes knight on f3 then the pawn on g7 can block sorry cant block as its a check, but if the black king doesnt take, then white oh my god xD this seems inevitable an unprotected and attacked queen on e2 a check threat on h2 no way out, but the move that invites all these trouble is h3 why didnt he play g3?

by ahmetom734 - 8 months ago
Bosnia\Sarajevo - Turkey\Istanbul Bosnia-Herzegovina
Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 6

what about c4 takes f7+ then queen on c4 check+ then taking the knight on d4 with the queen while the knight on f3 is protecting agasint the mate? since nothing can be worse than mate except humiliation, a sacrifice at the beginning and then a fork check and taking the knight regaining the material, i think this is a good solution.

by philirtus - 8 months ago
Seattle United States
Member Since: Jan 2009
Member Points: 17

i'm not really unsure if its unbeatable, because it seems that white has to make a few blunders, like moving the queen in the 8th move. with that being said its interesting watching grandmasters make mistakes so early in the game.,no one is perfect, execpt for maybe (kasparov)

by bosco - 8 months ago
International
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 228

Good Job Jay Hopkins!

by Niggles - 8 months ago
Mumbai India
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 56

pathetic playing by white. he must have had a jack daniels before the game

by NM Michelangelooo - 8 months ago
Ergens in Netherlands
Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 106

What about 10.Rd1? This must be better than 10.g3

by TonightOnly - 8 months ago
Phoenix, AZ United States
Member Since: Jun 2007
Member Points: 1521

This is called the Danish gambit. In Denmark, however, this is known as the Nordic gambit.

by bigfundu - 8 months ago
Chennai India
Member Since: Oct 2008
Member Points: 379

Well .. the mate was really simple and seems novice like, but can happen in a simul nevertheless

by minatonamikaze7 - 8 months ago
Hidden Leaf Village International
Member Since: Jul 2008
Member Points: 1462

wow some people are pretty harsh on a guy playing 12 games at once here.....happens to the best of us

by Sparta - 8 months ago
New York United States
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 1110

If 10. hxg4, black wins white's queen Nxe2+ 10. g3 did seem better, probably forced.

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