Gold Coin Game

The Gold Coin Game was played by Stefan Levitsky and Frank Marshall at Breslau in 1912. Marshall had Black and finished with 23...Qg3, placing his queen on a square where several white pieces appear able to capture it. The notation 23... marks Black's move on turn 23, while Qg3 means that the queen moved to g3.

The move works because the apparent captures fail to concrete tactical consequences. Tactics are forcing sequences based on immediate threats, checks, or material gains. Levitsky resigned, meaning that he accepted defeat without waiting for checkmate. The position was not simply a forced mate after every possible queen capture; the central point was that accepting the queen led to decisive losses for White.

The nickname comes from a story that spectators showered the board with gold coins to honor the combination. Historical accounts disagree about whether this happened, how many coins were involved, and who might have thrown them, so it belongs to tradition rather than firmly established fact. Like the Evergreen Game, its fame joins a genuine combination to a later story that is harder to verify.