- WhiteStepan Levitsky
- BlackFrank Marshall
- WhereBreslau (today Wrocław)
- WhenJuly 20, 1912
- EventMasters' tournament of the DSB Congress, round 6
- Result0–1, Black won
- OpeningFrench Defense (C10)
- Length23 moves
In the summer of 1912, the German Chess Federation held its congress in Breslau, the city that is now called Wrocław and lies in Poland. In the congress's masters' tournament, the Russian master Stepan Levitsky and the American Frank Marshall met on July 20.
The game is famous for a single move: 23…Qg3. Marshall puts his queen on a square where White can take it with three different pieces, but all three ways lose. Levitsky resigned at once.
The story of the gold coins is disputed. Marshall himself claimed that the spectators threw gold pieces onto his board after the win. The chess writer Israel Horowitz reported that Marshall's wife, Caroline, denied there had been even a shower of pennies, and Eric Schiller has written that others say the spectators were just paying off their bets.
The players
Stepan Levitsky (1876–1924) was a Russian master. He won the All-Russian Amateur Tournament in St. Petersburg in 1911 and with it the title of Russian champion for a year. At Breslau in 1912 he shared 13th–14th place. The opening 1.d4 d5 2.Bg5 bears his name, but posterity remembers him mostly for this game.
Frank Marshall (1877–1944) was U.S. champion from 1909 to 1936 and one of the strongest players in the world in the early 1900s. He won the tournament at Cambridge Springs in 1904, ahead of world champion Emanuel Lasker. In 1915 he founded the Marshall Chess Club in New York, the club where the Game of the Century was played just over forty years later.
The game move by move
Step through with the arrows or tap a move. Moves with a dot have a comment.
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Play like Marshall
Guess the moves Marshall played, one at a time. The move from the game earns two points, and a move Lavi thinks is about as good earns one. The other side's moves and the game's notes come as you go.
The moments that decided it
The end
Why the game is famous
The game lives on a single move. A queen that can be taken three ways, where every way loses, is something you don't forget. The Dutch writer Tim Krabbé has ranked 23…Qg3 as the third most stunning move of all time, and some annotators have given it three exclamation marks.
Not everyone is as impressed. The German writer Christian Hesse even called it the most overrated move in the whole history of chess. He granted that it was the strongest move, but even an ordinary queen move like 23…Qb4 would have left Black a piece up with an easily won position, because White still can't take the rook on h3 without losing the queen to …Nf3+. The advantage of 23…Qg3 is that it forces a queen trade at once. And then there are the gold coins, of course. True or not, they have made the game immortal.
The whole game with notes, as text
1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 c5 Marshall's own variation of the French Defense. It is considered theoretically dubious and is hardly played today. 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. exd5 exd5 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 8. Bg5 O-O 9. dxc5 Be6 10. Nd4 Bxc5 11. Nxe6 White trades the knight for the bishop. The commentator Pete Tamburro criticizes the move: Black gets the f-file for his rook and a strong pawn center. 11… fxe6 12. Bg4 Qd6 13. Bh3 Rae8 14. Qd2 Bb4 The bishop pins the knight on c3 to the queen on d2. 15. Bxf6 Rxf6 16. Rad1 Qc5 The pressure on c3 grows. 17. Qe2 Levitsky didn't want to go into the endgame after 17…Bxc3 18.Qxc3 Qxc3, where he would get doubled pawns on the c-file, and moves his queen to a more active square instead. 17… Bxc3 18. bxc3 Qxc3 Black wins a pawn. 19. Rxd5 White wins the pawn back. The pawn on e6 is pinned to the rook on e8 and can't capture: after 19…exd5 comes 20.Qxe8+ Rf8 21.Be6+ Kh8 22.Qxf8#. 19… Nd4 20. Qh5 According to the commentator Pete Tamburro, 20.Qe4 was better. 20… Ref8 The rooks double on the f-file. Now that the pin is gone, Black threatens both 21…exd5 and 21…Rxf2. 21. Re5 The rook escapes to a safe square and also guards e1. 21… Rh6 The rook attacks the queen on h5. 22. Qg5 The queen gets away, but now the pawn on g2 has two jobs: it protects the bishop on h3, and it stops the knight from forking king and queen on f3. 22… Rxh3 Black takes the bishop. 23.gxh3 doesn't work, because then 23…Nf3+ forks king and queen. 23. Rc5 The rook attacks the queen on c3. 23… Qg3 One of the most famous moves in chess history. The queen can be taken three ways, and Black threatens …Qxh2#. 24.hxg3 Ne2# is mate, so is 24.fxg3 Ne2+ 25.Kh1 Rxf1#, and after 24.Qxg3 Ne2+ 25.Kh1 Nxg3+ 26.Kg1 Nxf1 Black has an easily won position. Levitsky resigned.
PGN – the game as text for other chess programs
[Event "Masters' tournament of the DSB Congress, round 6"] [Site "Breslau (today Wrocław)"] [Date "1912.07.20"] [Round "?"] [White "Stepan Levitsky"] [Black "Frank Marshall"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C10"] 1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. Nc3 c5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. exd5 exd5 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O Be7 8. Bg5 O-O 9. dxc5 Be6 10. Nd4 Bxc5 11. Nxe6 fxe6 12. Bg4 Qd6 13. Bh3 Rae8 14. Qd2 Bb4 15. Bxf6 Rxf6 16. Rad1 Qc5 17. Qe2 Bxc3 18. bxc3 Qxc3 19. Rxd5 Nd4 20. Qh5 Ref8 21. Re5 Rh6 22. Qg5 Rxh3 23. Rc5 Qg3 0-1
Sources
- Chessgames.com, Levitsky–Marshall 1912
- Wikipedia: Levitsky versus Marshall
- PGN Mentor, Marshall.pgn
Chessgames and Wikipedia are identical move by move (46 half-moves). PGN Mentor has the same game but starts 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 instead of 1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5: the same position after two moves, and the rest is identical. We follow Chessgames and Wikipedia. Every move has also been replayed by computer and checked against the rules of chess.
Updated November 6, 2026
Stepan Levitsky has the white pieces, Frank Marshall the black.