An extremely dangerous pawn sacrifice 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.c3 d5
The Marshall Attack is one of the most important systems against Spanish today, and it is one of the sharpest. With their last move Black offers their e-pawn as a sacrifice, because after 9.exd5 Nxd5 White can capture twice on e5 with 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5.
Black will then try to use the diagonals and lines opened-up by the disappearance of the central pawns to attack the white king's position. Moreover, in order to win the e5-pawn, White has exchanged an important defender of their king in the form of the f3-knight - and the pieces on the queenside are still on their original squares. The American Frank James Marshall (1877-1944) is regarded as the inventor of this gambit, which he used against Capablanca in New York in 1918. Marshall played 11...Nf6, followed on the next move by ...Bd6, then ...Ng4 and ...Qh4. But although this looks splendid, today this direct form of attack is not considered sufficient.
The modern form of the gambit favoured by top players begins with 11...c6, which keeps the black knight on the central square d5. After 12.d4 comes 12...Bd6, and after 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 the black pieces take up threatening positions.
If White accepts Marshall's pawn sacrifice, they should know the theory of this position well, because without preparation the defence task at the board is difficult to solve. Important resources for White are the opening of the a-file with a2-a4 and axb5 and, after ...f5, the timely blocking of the further advance with f2-f4. Many players don't want to suffer even for the price of a pawn and therefore avoid 8.c3 after 7...0-0. Instead, they choose one of the anti-Marshall systems on move 8. 8.h3 and 8.a4 in particular have often been played, but 8.d4 and 8.d3 are also possible. Here, transitions to other variations of the Closed Spanish are possible as well as independent play-offs. Once you are familiar with the basic plans for Black, the Marshall Attack is quite easy to play. With White, you should definitely decide before the game whether you want to boldly accept the gambit or prefer to play one of the popular anti-Marshall systems.