<talisman: 1914 marked the 1st note of something wrong w/ AR.he was 3-0 against alekhine before then and still no WC Match!>

The Russian National Tournament in Vilna 1912 (that's where this game is from) was a double round robin tournament. Rubinstein beat Alekhine in both encounters but this is the only game score available of those two games.

So Rubinstein beat Alekhine in their first 4 encounters.

Taking Black's four moves after the exchange sacrifice 19...Rxf3, the first two moves, 20...Nxe5 and 21...Rf8 attack the f3 pawn whereas the following two moves, 22...Ne5-g6 and 23...Bd6 attack the point f4 in front of the f3 pawn. As it happens, that is not all that they do. 21...Rf8 attacks the point f4 as well as the f3 pawn, 22...Nxe5 develops towards the point g6 and 23...Bd6 attacks the point h2.

Deceptively simple beasts, rooks. They thunder up and down ranks and files like behemoths - the incredible hulk on one side and the Thing from the fantastic four on the other.

But rooks' big problem is that they struggle to get into the game. Those flashy upstarts, the knights, can get going straight away. 1. Nf3 or 1. Nc3 and we're in business. Even black can join in the fun with 1...Nc6 or 1...Nf6 against everything.

Bishops and queens can slip into the battle after just the move of a pawn. But poor rooks spent much of the opening staring at a pawn's bottom. And one of their own pawns at that. Which can be very frustrating for an uber-powerful superhero.

Good players also seem to activate their rooks faster than the rest of us. They play "mysterious" rook moves like Re1 and Rd1, long before anything interesting seems to be happening on those files. And their f pawns seem to disappear with amazing rapidity, so that castling leaves a rook on a half open f file. Look at the games of Morphy and Kasparov for expert handling of rooks.

The much underrated Rubinstein gives us a masterclass in rook handling today. 15...Bxg6 opens the f file so that castling is both an aggressive (Rf8) and defensive (Kg8) move. Then 19...Rxf3 gives the Ra8 an express elevator to the white kingside and also destroys the rook's arch enemy - a Nf3.

By contrast, white's rooks never really get going. The Ra1 twiddles his giant green thumbs all the game. And by the time that the Rf1 decides that it's clobbering time (23. Rfe1) it is way way too late.

When I find myself in the early part of the game wondering what to do, I try to resist the temptation to move pawns (cos they can never go backwards) or to shift the minor pieces for a second time. Instead, I look to the big guys in the corners. Park a rook on the same file as the enemy king or queen, or on a file that is likely to get opened some time.