Young Marshall (2002)

Hilbert, John S.

Hardcover

Description:
This book is about the well-known American Grandmaster Frank Marshall's early years of chess, and the title of the book is actually a bit long "Young Marshall - The Early Chess Career of frank James Marshall, with Collected Games 1893 - 1900". The book consists of two major chapters: 1. Frank Marshall, The Early Years and 2. Marshall's Chess Games 1893-1900. At the end of the book you find Crosstables, Tournament and Match Record and some a game index.
Chess Historian John S. Hilbert has with this book covered a period of Marshall's life, and he wrote a book with many new information and a great deal of corrections to already know "facts". Many things Marshall told in his book "My Fifty Years of Chess" is, to say the least, not correct ;-) As a Chess Historian Hilbert did a great job finding the original sources and throughout the book you find internal references at the bottom of each page. This is of course historical correct, but if you are only interested in the story I don't think this is the correct approach. The book is difficult to read if you want to read all the text and the footnotes (and you should!).
Besides this I really think that Hilbert made a great contribution to this period of Marshall's life. He of course made use of books like Marshall's "My Fifty Years of Chess" and Soltis' "Frank Marshall, United States Chess Champion" but the majority of the sources is the original newspapers from that period. This gives you an insight not only of the young Marshall, but also of the chess and chess-players in Montreal and Brooklyn. One of things I like very much is that there is many portraits of the players Marshall met during these years.
If you think that you are going to see great games you will be disappointed! The first years is not very interesting if you look at his games, and it is not until the Minor Tournament in London 1899 we will see some games that are worth playing through. The bottom line is that I like the book very much, and think it is a worthy contribution to a period of Marshall's life that we didn't knew much about before. And a total of 173 games from this period is very impressive, though you have to know that many of the games are Blindfold games, Simultaneous games, Handicap games.... One of the things I also have to mention is that there are only one photo in the book and a few drawings. Overall I think the prize is to high for most people, but maybe it isn't a problem for people who are interested in Chess History?!
At the end of this Quick-Review I can't help giving you this example from the book where Hilbert writes about one of Marshall's opponents:
"Short had won the 1890 event in Quebec, and would also be Montreal Chess Club Champion in 1895-1896. On curiosity stemming from Montreal 1894 that Canadian chess historians may someday wish to explore is the presence of William Henry Hicks in the event. Born November 17, 1816, in Portsmouth, England, Hicks, at 78, likely was the oldest competitor present. His entry in Jeremy Gaige's Chess Personalia suggests he was last known to be alive in 1892, a conclusion that, with Hicks's presence at Montreal two years later, can now be revised."
Great stuff, don't you think? "....can now be revised."!! (Reviewed by Seagaard)
Olomouc 2000, 288 pages.