Chess Weekly (May 1, 1909)
The 1909 chess contest between José Raúl Capablanca and Frank Marshall took place from April 19 to June 23 across multiple U.S. cities including New York, Morristown (NJ), Scranton (PA), and Wilkes-Barre (PA). The match format was the first to win 8 games (draws not counting) with a time control of 30 moves in two hours, followed by 15 moves per hour thereafter. Capablanca won the marathon contest convincingly by a final score of 8 wins to 1, along with 14 draws. It was the Cuban master’s first match against a world-class master, reportedly achieving the impressive victory “without ever having opened a book to study the openings,” according to his 1920 biography “My Chess Career.” The match immediately established Capablanca as a force among the world’s elite players.
Although the New York State Chess Association initially recognized the match as being for the U.S. Championship, controversy arose after Capablanca’s decisive victory. Marshall objected to Capablanca’s claim to the title on the grounds that Capablanca, a Cuban citizen, was not a U.S. citizen. Legal counsel Walter Penn Shipley ruled that the title had reverted to the last living holder, Jackson Whipps Showalter, after Harry Pillsbury’s death in 1906. Capablanca later styled himself as the “Champion of America,” offering to defend this title against any challenger from the Western Hemisphere. The 50-year-old Showalter came out of retirement in November of 1909 to legitimize the American title, losing to the much younger Marshall by the score of 7 wins, 2 losses, and 3 draws.
Shared below is the lone victory by Marshall over Capablanca in their 1909 match, as annotated by the participants themselves.
To play through ALL of the games from this match, visit our match-viewer page.
GAME & ANNOTATIONS: My Fifty Years of Chess (Marshall) pp. 115-116; Chess Weekly (May 15, 1909)
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