From the Preface: "My first serious contact with chess began when, as a high school sophomore, I took a board in a simultaneous exhibition at the Marshall Chess Club. With some difficulty I managed to locate the club's ivy-covered Greenwich Village brownstone and, after getting past the front door, climbed for the first time the ancient staircase that leads to the club's main second-floor playing rooms. At the top of the stairs a tiny, gray-haired lady collected my $3 fee for the exhibition, smiled and directed me to a table and chessboard next to what I later learned was a 130-year-old fireplace.

Thirty years have passed since my first visit to the Marshall Chess Club. Most everyone who knew Frank and Carrie is gone, and his books are out of print. As a result of the passage of time, today's players are losing all contact with the era when chess was transformed from a pastime to a profession, the era of Frank Marshall. In trying to rectify this I've relied heavily on Marshall's own words--from handwritten notes he left and from his autobiographical, final book. The notes, written in pencil on yellow legal pad paper, were the basis for the book, hereafter referred to as My Fifty Years. The notes are part of the archives of the Marshall Chess Club, without whose help this book would not be possible."--GM Andy Soltis, New York City, June 1993

Specifications:

• Author: Soltis
• Book Type: Hardback, 1994
• Notation: Algebraic Notation
• Pages: 383