Frank James Marshall (New York, 10 August, 1877 – Jersey City, 9 November, 1944). He was the US Chess Champion between 1909 and 1936, one of the best chess players at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1986, he was selected to the members of World Chess Hall of Fame among the firsts.

Marshall lived in Montreal (Canada) from the age of eight until he was nineteen. At the age of ten he started playing chess and by the age of thirteen he was considered to be one of the best chess players in the city.

He won the US Chess Championship in 1904 for the first time, however, he refused the title as the then champion, Harry Nelson Pillsbury did not participate in the tournament. Pillsbury died in 1906 but Marshall still did not want to be considered as the champion. He only accepted the title in 1909 when he won the tournament.

He played a pairing based match against Emanuel Lasker in 1907 but failed miserably: eight defeats, seven ties, no wins.

He agreed to participate in a pairing based match against the Cuban chess talent Jose Raul Capablanca in 1909 but was surprised to loose badly (+1-8=14). After that Marshall did not resent Capablanca, what is more, when he recognized his talent, he facilitated the young Cuban in recognizing his career. He managed to get his friend into the 1911 closed San Sebastian Tournament. Though a lot of people opposed his entering, Capablanca won the tournament in response.

He won fifth place in the Saint Petersburg Tournament in 1914 behind the World Champion Lasker, the later world champions Capablanca and Alekhine, and the former World Champion challenger Tarrasch. After the tournament he received the Grandmaster title from Tzar Nicholas II, only the previously mentioned four players could receive the same acknowledgement.

He opened the Marshall Chess Club in 1915 that is one of the best American chess clubs even today.

The American team led by Marshall won four Chess Olympiads in the 1930s. At the same time it is worth mentioning that the later dominant Russian team did not participate in these Olympiads.

In 1936, after holding the US Champion title for 27 years, he decided to relinquish voluntarily. After the Marshall era the first similar tournament was sponsored and held by the National Chess Federation in New York. The trophy was donated by the Marshall Chess Club and the first winner was Samuel Reshevsky.

Marshall was known as a tactical genius. One aspect of this was the "Marshall swindle”. He is credited with several opening variations. One of these, for example, is the Marshall Attack, a variation of the Ruy Lopez he used against Capablanca in 1918. Although Capablanca won the game, Marshall’s opening idea became increasingly popular.

A quotation from him: “The hardest game to win is a won game.”

His highest rating according to the Chessmetrics historical rating system was 2762.

Sources: https://hu.wikipedia.org; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki; http://www.chessmetrics.com