The Marshall Trap refers to a chess opening within the framework of Petrov’s Defense, which is named after Frank Marshall. Marshall was a highly skilled chess player and the United States Chess Champion from 1909 to 1936, who was renowned for his exceptional talent in the early 1900s.
While Petrov’s Defense may not be among the most frequently used chess openings nowadays, it can still be encountered by White players from time to time. Therefore, it would be wise to familiarize oneself with the possible traps that may be lurking, in order to avoid falling victim to them due to negligence.
Nice theory, indeed. What about some real games? As usual, I checked my database, and since the opening line is pretty long, I tried an iterative search:
88 results: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O
42 results: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. c4
8 results: e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. c4 Bg4
And zero results for the trap move 10. Re1. Bah! Anyway, let’s analyze at least one of these eight games that were the closest to the goal: