Sep-06-17
 | | KEG: Pressing relentlessly to win, Marshall errs on move 45 and escapes defeat only when Brody fails to find an endgame win. 1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6
4. Ba4 Nf6
5. 0-0 Be7
6. d4
This move (the "Center Variation") is not one of the usual lines in the Ruy Lopez, but it is certainly not bad. 6... 0-0
6...exd4 is most frequently played here, and is perhaps better than the text, which is nonetheless a reasonable alternative. 7. d5 Nb8
Very passive. 7...Na5 is best.
8. Qe2
Marshall is looking for a bind on Black's game, else he would surely have played the superior 8. Nxe5. 8... d6
9. c4 Ne8
Continuing his hedgehog defense. 9...c6 challenging the advanced White center was better. After the text, the position was as follows" 
click for larger viewNot a setup most of us would strive for with Black! 10. Bc2
Anticipating exchanges on f5. Better, however, was either the simple developing 10. Nc3 or the prophylactic 10. h3. As it turns out, however, Marshall has guessed Brody's intentions and quickly gets a strategically won game. 10... f5
The move Marshall had expected, but not best. 10...Bg4 was much better. 11. exf5 Bxf5
12. BxB RxB
13. Nc3 Nd7
14. Bd2
Marshall could have saved a tempo and the best square for his Queen with the immediate 14. Qc2. Marshall is spoiling his position. 14... Nf8
15. Rae1
Better was 15. Rfe1 or 15. Ne4. Marshall is continuing to lose ground here. 15... Ng6
16. Qd3 Qd7
17. Ne4 Nf4
18. BxN RxB
19. Nfg5 BxN
20. NxB Qf5
21. QxQ RxQ
After the exchange of Queens, the position was as follows: 
click for larger viewMarshall still has somewhat better chances, but it is doubtful that he could have won against best play. Perhaps he thought that his ability to post his Knight on e6 would give him a winning edge. If so, he was quickly disillusioned. 22. Ne6 g6
23. f4
Initiating another round of exchanges that simplifies Brody's task. To try for a win here, Marshall's best chance would have been 23. g4. 23... exf4
24. Rxf4 RxR
25. NxR Kf7
The position was now as follows:
click for larger viewMarshall again can post his Knight on e6, but has little chances for victory. The game, however, was far from over. Marshall tried gamely to win this endgame, and brought himself to the verge of defeat in this effort as I will show in my next post on this game. |
|
Sep-06-17
| | KEG: Post II
Marshall was determined to win this endgame and tried every which way to exploit what advantage he had. 26. Ne6 Rc8
27. Ng5+ Kg7
28. Ne6+
Rosenthal in the Tournament Book claims that "the right move was 28. Rf1," but that does not lead to anything I can see. Perhaps 28. g4 was Marshall's best chance here. 28... Kg8
Why move the King to the corner? Best was 28...Kf7. Indeed, the King goes there on Brody's next move. 29. Nd4 Kf7
30. Re3 Ng7
31. Rb3
A futile effort to provoke exploitable weaknesses on the Queen-side. In fairness, however, I see few good winning chances for Marshall here. 31... b6
32. Rf3+ Kg8
33. Ra3 Re8
Clever! If now 34. Rxa6 then 34...Re4 as Rosenthal points out in the Tournament Boo. 34. Kf2 Re4
35. Rd3 g5
36. b3 g4
37. Nc6 Nf5
38. Rd2 Kg7
39. Re2
A cute trap set by Marshall. The position was now as follows: 
click for larger viewAs Rosenthal notes in the Tournament Book, had Brody traded Rooks here, Marshall would have won with 39...RxR+ 40. KxR with Nb8 and Na6 to follow. Brody, however, correctly avoids this fatal line. 39... Rf4+
40. Kg1 Kf6
40...a5 seems more accurate, but Brody is still hanging on. 41. Nb8 b5
41...a5 may be theoretically best here, but Brody is tired of being a punching bag in this game and decides to work up some threats of his own with active defense. 42. Nxa6
Best and safest was 42. cxb5. Marshall is playing with fire here. 42... bxc4
43. Nxc7 c3!
Brody's idea. The position was now as follows:
click for larger viewRemarkably, and as Rosenthal notes in the Tournament Book, the natural looking 44. Rc2 loses immediately here to 44...Ne3 45. Rc1 [not 45. Rxc3?? Rf1 mate] Rf8+ (45...c7 also wins) 46. RxR NxR followed by c2. Marshall sees this threat, but then errs on his very next move. 44. Ne6
Even better was 44. Nb5.
44... Rb4
45. Rc2?
45. Kf2 to keep the Knight away from e3 was essential. 45... Ne3
All of a sudden, Marshall is lost!
click for larger viewHow Marshall saved this game (or, to put it less charitably, how Brody managed not to win from this position) will be the subject of my next post. |
|
Sep-06-17
| | KEG: Post III
Picking up from the last diagram in my last post, it appears that Marshall is busted. 46. Rxc3 loses a piece after 46...Nxd5. 46. Rc1 Nxd5 is also hopeless. So Marshall goes fishing. 46. Rf2+ Ke4?
Walking into Marshall's little trap. The game would have been over after 46..,Kg6 47. Re2
Pinning Brody's menacing Knight. Marshall is still lost, but now things get interesting. 47... Re4
The position was now as follows:
click for larger view48. Ng5 c2!
49. Re1
Marshall tries to spring another trap:
click for larger viewAmazingly, and as Rosenthal shows in the Tournament Book, 49...Kd4 50. NxR Nd1 loses to 51. Nf2!!: 
click for larger viewWow!
Of course, 50...KxN saves the game for Brody in the above line, but he was obviously looking for more than a draw here. He therefore played: 49... Rd4
50. RxN+
The position was now:
click for larger viewSurely Brody will now win as soon as he gets out of check. But that's not what happened as I will show in my final post on this game. |
|
Sep-06-17
| | KEG: Post IV
Chess can be a cruel game. Brody defended bravely early in this contest, withstood Marshall's attack, hung on in the endgame with active defense, and then turned the tables on Marshall and obtained a winning position. On his 49th move, Brody sidestepped a brilliant trap by Marshall. Now all he needed to do was to move his King out of check. 50... Kf5?
50...Kf4 would have been sufficient for victory. Now, however, Marshall manages to escape. 51. Rc3 Rd1+
52. Kf2 c1(Q)
53. RxQ RxR
54. Nf7
click for larger viewAll of a sudden, Marshall's Knight can capture Brody's d-pawn with check and can bring his King to g3. None of this would have been possible had Brody played 50...Kf4! 54... Rc2+
55. Kg3 Rxa2
56. Nxd6+ Ke5
57. Nc4+ Kxd5
58. Ne3+ Ke6
59. Kxg4 Rb2
60. Kf4 Rxb3
The position was now as follows:
click for larger viewBrody played on for another 15 moves, but was unable to make any progress and finally forced a draw on his 74th move. An exciting game with lots of fine play but also many missed opportunities by both sides. |
|
| Mar-31-19 | | bubuli55: He Ain’t Heavy. He’s M Brody |
|
| Apr-01-19 | | SugarDom: Great Pun, cowboy. |
|
| Nov-28-24 | | Saniyat24: https://youtu.be/Jl5vi9ir49g?si=USf... |
|
Nov-28-24
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: Black's position doesn't look all that bad after 10.Bc2, but 10...f5 does look premature, gifting the e4 square to White. What about 10...g6; 11.Bh6?! (Nc3 or Be3),Ng7 intending ...f7-f5 and a version of a typical King's Indian Defense pawn storm? |
|
| Nov-28-24 | | Amarande: Drawn either way of course, but ... it's too bad it's not Black's move in the final position ... |
|
Nov-28-24
 | | Teyss: The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where?
Who knows where?
To a hard-fought draw
Many thanks to User: KEG for his great analysis. It demonstrates a draw can be as interesting as a decisive game, and sometimes more. |
|
Nov-28-24
 | | offramp: Mr User: KEG is a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 kibitzer. He is the captain of his own boat. He plots his own journey. No one knows where he will alight next. In this case it was the tiny tributary Marshall vs M Brody, 1900. <KEG> has wonderfully annotated this little-known game. But on the home page the pun appears as gibberish: "<He Ain’t Heavy. He’s M Brody>" which means <"People called 'Romanes' they go the house">. |
|
| Nov-28-24 | | stone free or die: <offramp: captain of his own boat> Or ship?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvO... |
|
Nov-28-24
 | | OhioChessFan: I will join in praising <KEG> whose annotations are worth looking up. |
|
Nov-28-24
| | offramp: <User: stone free or die> I did not know that song. It is really good; it is 10m but it is worth it. Jeremy Clarkson likes a lot of strange music, mainly <progressive rock>, <Yes> and things like that.
The trouble is that no one has the time to listen to new music, read new books, watch telly, kibitz at chess, go to the shops and have normal intercourse with a wife - it's not possible. |
|
Nov-28-24
| | Teyss: Hi offramp,
<The trouble is that no one has the time to listen to new music, read new books, watch telly, kibitz at chess, go to the shops and have normal intercourse with a wife - it's not possible.> Sadly, so true. Which one(s) are you giving up on? I gave up music, books, TV, Chess and shops. Romanes eunt domus! |
|
Nov-28-24
 | | FSR: I had never heard of Miklos Brody, but he was a strong player. Chessmetrics ranks him the No. 24 player in the world at various times between 1900 and 1914. http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/... His best performance was at the 2nd Kolisch Memorial, Vienna (1899/00), about five months before this game. Geza Maroczy ran amok, scoring an undefeated 9-2, but Brody tied with Carl Schlechter for second, 1.5 points behind. Impressive company indeed. Schlechter tied with Lasker in their 1910 world championship match; Maroczy and Lasker agreed to terms for a championship match in 1906, but Maroczy for some reason didn't follow through. Today, Maroczy is most remembered for "his" bind. Though he praised the white setup with pawns on e4 and c4, there are no known games where he played it. He did win as Black against it in Swiderski vs Maroczy, 1904. His play declined markedly after his death, but I guess that's to be expected. Maroczy / Rollans vs Korchnoi, 1985. Back to Brody. He was born in Nagykároly, Hungary, then part of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary was one of the losers of World War I, and after the war his town became Carei, Romania. Brody's only games in the database after 1913 are from the 1928 and 1935 Olympiads, where he represented Romania. In his last game in the database, at age 58, he beat Sir George Thomas. G Thomas vs M Brody, 1935. |
|
Nov-29-24
| | OhioChessFan: Closer to Home is fabulous. Listen to it once to enjoy it, then listen a second time and focus on the drum line. One of the best in rock history. |
|
Dec-05-24
| | KEG: <offramp> <OhioChessFan> <Teyss> I am delighted that you found my annotations of interest and/or use, and am flattered by your over-generous praise. Thank you all so much. I do enjoy playing over these games from long ago and then recording my thoughts so they can be critiqued by the fine analysts on this site. I am looking forward to my retirement next August after which I hope to have more time for chess and for my other favorite pursuits. |
|
|
|
|
Kibitzing
