The Marshall–Mieses Match

Berlin, November/December 1908

Frank Marshall, who would become U.S. Champion the following year, faced the seven-years-older German master Jacques Mieses in Berlin in late 1908. Ten games, four weeks, the Café Kerkau. Mieses led 4½–3½ after eight games. Marshall won the last two and the match by 5½ to 4½. Years later, Tarrasch dryly remarked in his own match book: “if one can still call this a victory.”

Background: Marshall’s 1908 Tour

Frank Marshall arrived in Berlin in the autumn of 1908 after a gruelling stretch of competitive chess. In August he had won the 16th Congress of the German Chess Federation in Düsseldorf. In September he played a four-man tournament in Lodz alongside Rubinstein, Salwe and Tartakower; Rubinstein and Salwe shared first place, Marshall finished third.

In October and November Marshall contested a match against Akiba Rubinstein in Warsaw and lost narrowly, 3½–4½. He arrived in Berlin not as a victor but as a beaten man. In a letter dated 1 December 1908 to the editors of the American Chess Bulletin in New York, he wrote: “I am quite tired out, and think I have had too much chess of late.”

Sources: Donaldson/Minev, The Life and Games of Akiba Rubinstein, Vol. 1; American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 6, January 1909, p. 13.

Format and Conditions

The match was played at the Café Kerkau, Friedrichstrasse 59–60, corner of Leipziger Strasse, in the so-called Equitable-Palast. Hugo Kerkau, a former Berlin billiards champion, had opened the establishment around 1900. It was one of Berlin’s principal chess venues before 1914; the Berlin Chess Society had been based there since 1901. The match was scheduled for ten games over four weeks in November and December 1908. The format was a fixed number of games, not first to a set number of wins.

According to Marshall’s own account in his letter to the American Chess Bulletin, the match drew an average of over one hundred spectators per playing day. Annotations were provided by two chess journalists: Leopold Hoffer for the American Chess Bulletin in New York (eight of the ten games), and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for the final two games.

Friedrichstrasse 59-60 in Berlin, location of Café Kerkau in 1908 — Friedrichstrasse 59–60 in Berlin, location of the Café Kerkau at the time of the 1908 match. Image source: Wikipedia.

Course of the Match

Game	White	Opening	Result
1	Marshall	Queen’s Gambit Declined	1–0 Marshall
2	Mieses	Vienna Game	1–0 Mieses
3	Marshall	Queen’s Gambit Declined	½–½
4	Mieses	Vienna Game	1–0 Mieses
5	Marshall	Queen’s Gambit Declined	1–0 Mieses
6	Mieses	Vienna Game	1–0 Mieses
7	Marshall	Queen’s Gambit Declined	1–0 Marshall
8	Mieses	Vienna Game	1–0 Mieses
9	Marshall	Queen’s Gambit Declined	1–0 Marshall
10	Mieses	Vienna Game	0–1 Marshall
Final Score		Marshall 5½, Mieses 4½ (+5 −4 =1)

The Finest Game of the Series

Leopold Hoffer, who annotated the match games for the American Chess Bulletin in New York, considered the eighth game the finest of the entire series. Mieses played White with his Vienna Opening, built a superior centre, launched a direct attack on the king and decided the game with a calculated exchange sacrifice. The win put him ahead 4½–3½ after eight games.

“This, the eighth game of the series, is considered there to be the finest of the series.”

Leopold Hoffer in American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 6, January 1909, p. 17

Game 8: Mieses vs Marshall

With his kingside attack in the eighth game, Mieses secured his match lead.

Marshall’s Comeback

After Hoffer’s favourite game, Mieses led 4½–3½. Marshall needed more than half a point from the remaining two games to turn the match around. He won both. In the ninth game (Marshall with White, Queen’s Gambit Declined) he developed his king’s bishop via g2, which the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described as “the new Russian wrinkle,” sacrificed the exchange on move 23 and won against what the newspaper called an “utterly routed” Mieses.

In the final game Mieses played White with his Vienna Opening. Marshall exchanged queens on move 15, won a weak pawn and launched an attack in which he had three pieces en prise simultaneously. A daring calculation that worked only because Marshall saw several half-moves further. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called the finish “a very pretty mating net.” The match was decided.

Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 December 1908, p. 22.

Game 9: Marshall’s “Russian Wrinkle”

Marshall developed his king’s bishop via g2 and sacrificed the exchange to level the match.

Game 10: The Mating Net

Mieses played his Vienna Opening, but Marshall calculated a mating finale with three pieces en prise.

Tarrasch’s Verdict

Eight years later, in the preface to his match book on his own 1916 contest against Mieses, Siegbert Tarrasch drew an ironic balance. Tarrasch counted match scores without draws, which is why he gave Marshall’s 5½–4½ as 5–4. Marshall had won “mit 5:4” (“by 5 to 4”), Tarrasch wrote, adding: “wenn man dies noch einen Sieg nennen kann” (“if one can still call this a victory”).

Tarrasch, Schachwettkampf, preface, p. 4.

Sources

American Chess Bulletin, Vol. 6, January 1909, pp. 13–17. Marshall’s letter of 1 December 1908. Annotations by Leopold Hoffer for eight of the ten games.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 21 December 1908, p. 22. Report on the final two games.
Donaldson/Minev, The Life and Games of Akiba Rubinstein, Vol. 1. Table: Warsaw, October–November 1908.
Tarrasch, Der Schachwettkampf Tarrasch–Mieses im Herbst 1916, Veit & Comp., Leipzig 1916. Preface, p. 4.

From the Forthcoming Biography

The Marshall–Mieses match of 1908 will be covered in full in the Mieses biography by Johannes Geppert (JUG Verlag, Q1 2027). All ten games with complete annotations, press reports and previously unpublished sources.

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