Alterman on the Marshall Attack
25.07.2004 One of the world’s first Grandmasters of chess, America’s Frank J. Marshall (1877-1944), left behind a lasting legacy to the chess world with his revered gambit against the Ruy Lopez – the Marshall Attack. Boris Alterman looks at Marshall's revolutionary idea in his Sunday night online lecture.
Boris Alterman writes: After the Classical moves in the Ruy Lopez
Defence 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3
0-0 8.c3 Frank Marshall used to play the magnificent pawn sacrifice
8…d5!
Black gets rid of the white pawn on e4, sacrificing his pawn on e5 in exchange
for the strong pressure in the center and on the kingside.
The Marshall Attack is one of the oldest and most important openings in the
history of chess. It is perhaps because of this reason that as white many Grandmasters,
including the world number one Gary Kasparov, have decided to avoid the issue
altogether, preferring the more tranquil waters of Anti-Marshall systems.
In current theory the ideas and strategies of both approaches are studied
in-depth, and nowadays experts have come to the conclusion that White has no
clear superiority in the main theoretical lines. For this reason the Marshall
Attack is a frequent guest at almost all super-tournaments. The Marshall Attack
has been employed by numerous top grandmasters including Spassky, Geller, Nunn,
Adams, Short, Anand, Svidler, Kamsky, Shirov and others.
GM
Boris Alterman is 34, and lives in Israel. He was born in Kharkov,
Ukraine, where he started playing chess at the age of 7. His career highlights
include earning the IM title in 1991 and the GM title in 1992.He is the winner
of the following Open and GM tournaments: Haifa 1993; Bad Homburg 1996; Rishon
LeZion 1996; Beijing 1995 and 1997; Munchen 1992. His hobbies include computers
and swimming, his favourite food is Chinese, he speaks fluent Russian, Hebrew
and English.
Boris has worked for and against Garry Kasparov. In 1999 he assisted the world
champion in his spectacular Microsoft match Kasparov vs The World, and was
also part of the team that built up the web portal Kasparov Chess. In 2003,
on the other hand, he was part of the Deep Junior team that gave Kasparov a
run for his money in the New
York match.
GM Boris Alterman's Radio
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