According to Chessmetrics, in 1909, Frank Marshall was ranked number 10 in the world with an estimated rating of 2597. It was also in that year that he played a match with a young Cuban player named Capablanca and to most people's surprise, lost eight games, drew fourteen and won only one.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that Marshall was in top form in 1909 and in November he defeated Jackson W. Showalter in a match to became the US Champion.
Earlier in 1909, Marshall lost an informal three game match by a score of 2-1 against Edward P. Elliott (1893 – 1955) who was from Minnesota.
Elliott had won the Western Chess Association (forerunner of the US Open) championship in 1908 and was to win it again in 1912. So, who was this relatively obscure Edward P. Elliott that was good enough to vanquish the legendary Frank Marshall?
There is not a lot known about Elliott besides his winning the Western Open a couple of times. A long time prominent figure in Midwest chess, one source says he was a resident of St. Paul and another says Minneapolis.
After his defeat of Marshall, Chess Weekly, a magazine edited by William E. Napier, Magnus Smith and Charles Nugent, said that his play, which was described a “clever”, indicated that he “would be a valuable addition the American Cable Team.”
Presumably by American Cable Team they were referring to the yearly Anglo-American cable match series between teams from Great Britain and the United States that were conducted over transatlantic cable from 1896 to 1911, except for the three-year gap of 1904 to 1906 when no matches were held. The series ended when Great Britain won their third consecutive match, thereby earning permanent custody of the silver cup provided by Sir George Newnes.
Prominent British players included Joseph Blackburne, Amos Burn, Henry Bird, Henry Atkins, Horatio Caro, James Mason, Frederick Yates, Sir George Thomas, and Thomas Lawrence.
For the US: Harry Pillsbury, Jackson Showalter, Frank Marshall, Albert Hodges, Eugene Delmar and John Barry.
The 1909 cable match against Great Britain was played in March and Elliott wasn't on the team which consisted of Frank Marshall, John Barry, Albert Hodges, Hermann Voigt, James Howell, Herman Helms, George J. Schwietzer, Samuel L. Stadelman, Stash Mlotkowski ans William A. Ruth. Great Britain won 6-4.
I discovered a clipping from the Santa Ana (California) Daily Register dated December 5, 1932 in which Elliott's name appeared. According to the article local players would be interested in an upcoming evening of chess at the YMCA in which arrangements had been made to have Edward P. Elliott, Orange County Chess Champion, give a simultaneous exhibition. Apparently by that time he was living in California.
In the following game from the match, at move 14 Elliott plays a risky attacking move offering up a B which Marshall unwisely accepted. Then, on his next move it was Marshall's turn to take a risk. Instead of trading down into a murky, but favorable ending, he blundered by trying to keep pieces on the board.
One can't know what Marshall was thinking, but the continuation indicates that at move 17 he made what Andrew Soltis has called an assumption error. It's quite possible he assumed white would make the recapture 17.Bxe4. Instead he played 14.Bc4+ and Marshall had no choice but to give up his Q for two Bs, but had no compensation and resignation a couple of moves later was in order.
Assumptions errors are quite common. As Soltis observed, it's impossible to calculate without making assumptions, but we have to make sure that must-make moves really are a must and not a most likely.
False assumptions are most likely to happen with recaptures. As Eduard Gufeld once explained, he forgot chess is not checkers and recaptures are not obligatory.
Checks are another common source of false assumptions. It's common to assume a check is the most forceful move in the position, but it may be that some other move is stronger.
There's also the psychological side. Once we realize we have assumed something to be true then realize it's not, it's easy to start second guessing yourself.
Dr. Martha Sirota, writing about assumptions we all make in life wrote, “It’s also no big deal for us to decide, arbitrarily, why an event has taken place. We don’t base this decision on observable evidence or factual knowledge; we just make the decision and believe it, as if it were fact.”
“The problem with making these types of assumptions, and we all do it, myself included, is that more often than not, we’re wrong. We assume that a person has a specific motivation for their actions or that an event took place for a specific reason. Then we start to see these incorrect assumptions as the truth. A lot of damage can be done by confusing our assumptions with the truth.”
Dr. Sirota wasn't speaking about chess players, but she could have.
Edward P. Elliott–Frank Marshall1–0C65Exhibition match, MinneapolisMinneapolis, MN USA1909Stockfish 16
C65: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense 1.e4 e5 2.f3 c6 3.b5 f6 The Berlin
Defense has long had a reputation for being solid, but drawish. US Champion
Arthur Bisguier played it for decades, but always chose the variation 4.0-0
Nxe4. In 2000, Kramnik used it as a drawing weapon against Kasparov in thier
World Championship match and since then it has been taken up by the likes of
Shirov, Topalov, Kasparov and Anand.) 4. d4 (Almost always seen are either 4.
Nc3 or 4.O-O. While not bad, the text offers white less than the other two
moves.) Nxd4 (4... exd4 (is the main line against which white can play either
5.O-O or 5.e5 4.d4 xd4 In practice black gets much better results with
either 4...exd4 or 4...Nxe4 5.xd4 exd4 6.e5 e4 6...c6 is preferred. 7.xd4 cxb5 8.exf6 xf6 9.xf6 gxf6 with full equality. 7.xd4 7.0-0 h4 8.g3 h3 9.e2 d5 10.exd6 xd6 11.xd4 equals. Bird,H-Anderssen,A London
1851 7...f5 8.exf6 xf6 9.0-0 e7 10.c3 Black should now play 10...c6
followed by d5 0-0 11.g5 11.d5 was a bit better. c6 11...xd5 12.xd5+ h8 13.d3 g6 14.h6 with a decisive advantage. 12.xe7+ xe7 13.d3 d5 14.d2 with better development. 11...c6 12.d3 d5 13.h4 White’s position has some potential. h6 14.f4 But not after
this! He doesn’t get enough compensation. He should have simply played 14.
Be3 with an equal position. hxg5 Although black should be able to survive
the coming attack this is playing into white’s hands. 14...b6+ 15.h1 xb2 Sometimes it's risky to take the b-Pawn, but here it's perfectly safe
thanks to the unguarded N. 16.xh6 16.e1 b4 17.xf6 xf6 18.b1 xc3
wins 16...xc3 17.g5 f7 18.ae1 e8 followed by ...Kd8 and black has
survived and has a decisive advantage. 15.fxg5 e4 Of course
Marshall is concened about the attack on his N and this move also blocks
white's B, but after this black loses quickly. 15...b6+ Practically
forcing the exchange of Qs and with it, white’s attack disappears. White
cannot afford not to make the trade. 16.h1 b4 17.f4 Trading Qs and then
gxf6 is equal, but this might look tempting, Black only has ine good move, the
surprising... xf4 18.xf4 e4 19.h4 xg5 20.e1 f2+ 21.g1 g4 22.h3 ae8 White has to return the Q after which black enjoys the advamntage. 23.b1 This attempt at keeping the Q runs into e3 24.h2 e5 25.e2 f4+ 26.g3 xg3+ 27.xg3 xe2 28.xe2 xe2 29.g1 e4+ 30.g4 ef2 31.h4 8f4+ 32.h5 f5+ 33.g4 2f3 mates. The immediate threat is 34...Nf6# 16.xe4 dxe4 17.c4+ 17.xe4 This is probably what Marshall was hoping for because now
it's white who is lost/ d4+ 18.h1 xf1+ 19.xf1 f5 20.e1 xe4 21.xe4 xe4 22.xe4 xg5 17.xe4 This would also win for white. The best
continuation being f5 18.xf5 xg5 19.af1 xf5 20.xf5 f6 21.h7+ f7 22.xf6+ 17...d5 Of course this is hopeless, but there is no saving the
game. 17...f7 18.xf7+ f8 19.h8# 18.xd5+ cxd5 19.xf8+ xf8 20.h8+ Black resigned. 20.h8+ f7 21.f1+ e6 22.g8+ d6 23.d1 e6 24.xa8 1–0
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