Understanding the Marshall Attack (Understanding Chess Openings)

A layman’s guide to the supergrandmasters’ favourite gambit“a high-quality monograph, and one that should enable most tournament players to improve their understanding of this opening.” - GM Glenn Flear, New in Chess YearbookThe Marshall Attack is a chess opening like no other. Rather than subjecting himself to the ‘Spanish torture’ so typical in the Ruy Lopez, Black simply gives away a centre pawn. But in return, he gets long-term attacking chances and activity that can persist well into the endgame.It is almost a century since Frank Marshall invented his sensational gambit, but it is still controversial, and more popular than ever amongst the best players in the world. In their hands, the Marshall Attack looks remarkably solid - even if White neutralizes Black’s attacking chances and remains a pawn up, Black often achieves full positional compensation.However, the Marshall appears a forbidding opening to ordinary club players, who feel that the theory is too difficult to understand and much too complex to memorize. Many simply avoid it with both colours. That, argues David Vigorito, is a shame. He shows that many typical Marshall positions can be broken down into elements that we can all grasp, and so build up an intuition to guide us. Then we are able to tackle this incredible opening and develop a feel for why pieces go to the squares that they do, and when Black has sufficient compensation, and when he does not.Of course, the Marshall remains a highly sharp and concrete opening, even to those who are versed in its unique brand of black magic. Vigorito provides detailed, cutting-edge theoretical coverage of all its main lines and the most important Anti-Marshall systems.“a good summary of existing theory, and the author has taken care to track down often overlooked, but sometimes theoretically crucial correspondence games, and importantly there is a decent sized section on Anti-Marshall lines that often crop up in practice.” - GM Michael Adams, Daily TelegraphDavid Vigorito is an International Master from the United States. He plays regularly in high-level competitions, including the US Championship. He has written extensively for a variety of publications and is a chess teacher. This is his second book for Gambit.“Suitable for Marshall players of all levels of skill and both colours” - IM Hedinn Steingrimsson, Schach-Welt-de“The Marshall Attack continues to be popular with top-flight Grandmasters. This book’s introduction name-checks a plethora of very strong players including Anand, Kramnik, Adams and Aronian. It’s easy to see the appeal; Black sacrifices a pawn in the opening and gets to throw numerous pieces towards the enemy king. Club players often like to emulate their chess heroes when it comes to opening choices. ... This book is a worthy guide.” - Sean Marsh, Marsh Towers Read more