First let's take a publishing house that's put out some magnificent chess books, a few examples being BOTVINNIK'S BEST GAMES (A three volume set by Botvinnik covering 1925-1970. Click to see Watson's review of Volume One.), QUARTERLY FOR CHESS HISTORY (click to see reviews by Watson and Silman), and the COMPLETE GAMES OF ALEKHINE (three volumes by Fiala & Kalendovsky, covering 1891-1927. Click to see reviews by Watson and Silman.). Next we add a famed chess historian that's treated us (I use the word "treated" because these books are fantastic) to NAPIER: THE FORGOTTEN CHESSMASTER (click to see Silman's review of this book), SHADY SIDE: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF NORMAN TWEED WHITAKER CHESS MASTER (click to see Donaldson's review of this book), and WALTER PENN SHIPLEY: PHILDELPHIA'S FRIEND OF CHESS (click to see reviews by Donaldson and Watson). Mix them together and what do we get? Apparently YOUNG MARSHALL, and it's not the happy marriage that I had hoped it would be.

This book (in the first 121 pages) covers Marshall's career up to 1901 (he was born in 1877), and offers us Hilbert's usual deep research. The final 161 pages are filled with Marshall's games (the majority being absolutely horrible) from that period and a few indexes. This sounds like it could have turned out fine, but chess historians have one fatal weakness: they think facts about famous players are always interesting, not understanding that few people care about the agonizing details of an average Joe's daily grind. The truth is, the legendary U.S. players' early life just wasn't that compelling. He played lots of chess (It doesn't seem that he had many interests outside the game, though I understand that he had a deep fondness for bingo.), he failed as often as he succeeded, he always dusted himself off after many of his nasty reversals, and his perseverance finally led to his becoming a world-class player (though not in the league of Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine). This never-say-die attitude is commendable, but there's little else to savor. Indeed, Hilbert's usual ability to bring the time period to life fails here, and all I felt was boredom and shades of gray. Marshall's early years just offered too little for the talented Mr. Hilbert to work with.

Here are two typical examples of the scintillating adventures contained in the pages of YOUNG MARSHALL:

"At his first appearance in the NYSCA general tournament, in 1896, Marshall scored only 1 ½ points from his three games, and thus was disqualified for the fourth and final round. Not surprisingly, given this lackluster result, he considered the level of competition he faced in Brooklyn higher than what he had been accustomed to in Montreal." [from page 25]

"In March and April 1898 a curious matter involving ex-world champion Steinitz took place. During those months the old giant of the chess world took part in a series of exhibition match games at the Metropolitan Chess Club in Manhattan. His appearances were, unfortunately, intermittent, but by the end of March he had played a dozen games against a total of seven opponents, without a loss. On Saturday, April 2, 1898, Steinitz was scheduled to face Marshall. It was understood that the game scores were to be the private property of the ex-champion, whose intent was to reproduce them [in a book] on which he is at present engaged.' The book was to include not only chess games, but also Steinitz's views on religion and more generally the philosophy of man's existence.' Unfortunately it appears nothing came of Steinitz's proposed book, and it is unknown whether Marshall ever faced Steinitz that long ago Saturday." [from page 55]

The second snippet from the book would probably offer little of interest to most readers, yet it's one of the livelier moments in the book!

Every chess writer has good and bad moments. The three Hilbert titles mentioned in the first paragraph are books that anyone would be happy to have in their library. YOUNG MARSHALL though, is a complete waste unless you're a chess book addict, or unless you're a chess historian who prizes raw facts over everything and anything else in life.

For fans of Marshall, pick up a copy of MARSHALL'S BEST GAMES OF CHESS by Marshall (Out of print but still very findable in used bookstores, this book is tremendous fun!), or FRANK MARSHALL, UNITED STATES CHESS CHAMPION by Andy Soltis (A highly enjoyable read, published by McFarland.).