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.
[Event "Exhibition match, Minneapolis"]
[Site "Minneapolis, MN USA"]
[Date "1909.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Edward P. Elliott"]
[Black "Frank Marshall"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C65"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "39"]
[EventDate "1909.??.??"]
{C65: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 {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 Nxd4 {In practice black gets much better results with
either 4...exd4 or 4...Nxe4} 5. Nxd4 exd4 6. e5 Ne4 (6... c6 {is preferred.} 7.
Qxd4 cxb5 8. exf6 Qxf6 9. Qxf6 gxf6 {with full equality.}) 7. Qxd4 (7. O-O Qh4
8. g3 Qh3 9. Be2 d5 10. exd6 Bxd6 11. Qxd4 {equals. Bird,H-Anderssen,A London
1851}) 7... f5 8. exf6 Nxf6 9. O-O Be7 10. Nc3 {Black should now play 10...c6
followed by d5} O-O 11. Bg5 (11. Nd5 {was a bit better.} c6 (11... Nxd5 12.
Qxd5+ Kh8 13. Bd3 g6 14. Bh6 {with a decisive advantage.}) 12. Nxe7+ Qxe7 13.
Bd3 d5 14. Bd2 {with better development.}) 11... c6 12. Bd3 {[%mdl 2048]} d5
13. Qh4 {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... Qb6+ 15. Kh1
Qxb2 {Sometimes it's risky to take the b-Pawn, but here it's perfectly safe
thanks to the unguarded N.} 16. Bxh6 (16. Qe1 Bb4 17. Bxf6 Rxf6 18. Rb1 Qxc3 {
wins}) 16... Qxc3 17. Bg5 Kf7 18. Rae1 Ke8 {followed by ...Kd8 and black has
survived and has a decisive advantage.}) 15. fxg5 Ne4 {[%mdl 8192] 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... Qb6+ {Practically
forcing the exchange of Qs and with it, white’s attack disappears. White
cannot afford not to make the trade.} 16. Kh1 Qb4 17. Rf4 {Trading Qs and then
gxf6 is equal, but this might look tempting, Black only has ine good move, the
surprising...} Qxf4 18. Qxf4 Ne4 19. Qh4 Bxg5 20. Qe1 Nf2+ 21. Kg1 Bg4 22. h3
Rae8 {White has to return the Q after which black enjoys the advamntage.} 23.
Qb1 {This attempt at keeping the Q runs into} Be3 24. Kh2 Re5 25. Be2 Bf4+ 26.
g3 Bxg3+ 27. Kxg3 Bxe2 28. Nxe2 Rxe2 29. Qg1 Ne4+ 30. Kg4 Ref2 31. h4 R8f4+ 32.
Kh5 Rf5+ 33. Kg4 R2f3 {mates. The immediate threat is 34...Nf6#}) 16. Nxe4 dxe4
17. Bc4+ (17. Bxe4 {This is probably what Marshall was hoping for because now
it's white who is lost/} Qd4+ 18. Kh1 Rxf1+ 19. Rxf1 Bf5 20. Re1 Bxe4 21. Qxe4
Qxe4 22. Rxe4 Bxg5) (17. Qxe4 {This would also win for white. The best
continuation being} Bf5 18. Rxf5 Bxg5 19. Raf1 Rxf5 20. Qxf5 Qf6 21. Qh7+ Kf7
22. Rxf6+) 17... Qd5 {Of course this is hopeless, but there is no saving the
game.} (17... Rf7 18. Bxf7+ Kf8 19. Qh8#) 18. Bxd5+ cxd5 19. Rxf8+ Kxf8 20.
Qh8+ {Black resigned.} (20. Qh8+ Kf7 21. Rf1+ Ke6 22. Qg8+ Kd6 23. Rd1 Be6 24.
Qxa8) 1-0
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