Alekhine - Marshall, Baden-Baden 1925

When International Master Gary Lane wrote about the Marshall Defense to the Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6) in his March 2010 column at Chess Cafe, I decided to send him an English language version of the article that I had written on the defense, as highlighted in the game Alekhine - Marshall, Baden-Baden 1925, that was published in Kaissiber #27.

The article is now available in the "Skittles Room" at Chess Cafe. 

Obscure and Disreputable Enough?

Although this blog is mostly about the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) it sometimes wanders a bit further afield.

For example, a while back, in the post "London Calling...Seven Months of Blog", I mused

I also got wondering the other day: is there another totally obscure and disreputable tactical opening line or gambit that I could go digging for information about, while I'm researching the Jerome Gambit??

This exercise led to a whole slew of new posts and opening ideas: "The next best thing...", "The next worse thing...", "Worth a Second Look (Part 1)", "Worth a Second Look (Part 2)", "Worth a Second Look (Part 3)", "Wild!", "Wilder!", "Wildest!", "And Yet Wilder Still...", "More of The Next Best Thing..." and "Busch-Gass Gambit".

I was reading Bob Long's new Chess DVD catalog the other day, and noticed that Volume 2 of his "The Busy Man's Chess Openings" series by IM Andrew Martin is coming out. Sub-titled "Black Shockers" it focuses on winning from the Black side, and includes analysis of the following defense: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c5.

The line is as old as Greco, and seen today about as often as the Yeti, but in the past it was tried by Marshall, Schlechter, Rubinstein, Grunfeld, Euwe and Heidenfeld. O'Kelley de Galway, Bisguier and Westerinen played it a number of times. There's even an online Opening Report on it.

Might be worth checking out, at that.

Breaking News...

I've mentioned Kaissiber, before.

Truth be told, I'm also partial to the online Chessville Weekly and the Unorthodox Openings Newsletter (both of which I write for) but nothing quite matches the work of International Master Stefan Bücker.



Don't take my word for it, though – check each issue's Table of Contents: http://www.kaissiber.com/html/heftarchiv.html



I'm highlighting Kaissiber #27 here because it contains an article titled "Alexander Alekhine and Marshall’s 1 d4 d5 2 c4 Nf6!?" – by me.

It's not every day that I can brag that I have something published in two different languages that I can't read – German and Italian.




Anyhow, I just had an exchange of emails with Stefan and as a realistic Editor he had some good news (for me) and some more good news (for Kaissiber readers).



He's still interested in publishing an article on the Jerome Gambit, based on all the information I've been sending him. In the fall. In a much more succinct format than what I've written.