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Alexander Alekhine vs Akiba Rubinstein
"Pale Ale" (game of the day Sep-05-09)
Vilnius All-Russian Masters (1912)  ·  Spanish Game: Open Variations. Classical Defense (C83)  ·  0-1
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Last move:

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Given 45 times; par: 29 [what's this?]

Annotations by Savielly Tartakower.      [4 more games annotated by Tartakower]

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sac: 19...Rxf3 PGN: download | view Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Dec-10-07  Karpova: <Green Bishop: Rubinstein beat Alekhine in the first 3 games they played.>

<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.

Actually, a lot of Rubinstein's games from the pre-WW1 era are missing.

Apr-01-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Ulhumbrus: Horowitz's remark on 15...fxg6 is: <Capture towards the centre is a good rule of thumb. Rubinstein, however, does not play with his thumbs. He plays 15...fxg6 to open the f file>

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.

Aug-24-08  Artemi: I think Rubinstein will beat Lasker in a match during this time! He is the strongest player in the world at that period as shown by this game!
Sep-05-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  WannaBe: Okay, okay, enough with the Alcohol reference and Alekhine... =)
Sep-05-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: I have a theory (actually I have many and most of them are rubbish) ... that really good players know how to handle rooks.

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.

Then when the action starts, the heavies are in position to do some damage.

Sep-05-09  anjyplayer: My sources told me the match was fixed.
Sep-05-09  ounos: <RookFile: The way Rubinstein slapped Alekhine around in this game was incredible.> He was aiming the fly, it temporarily landed on Alekhine. He apologized afterwards and all.
Sep-05-09  Sem: <Once> Some great kibitzing. Thanks.
Sep-05-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  maxi: Rubinstein was only a figment of the fly's imagination. A sad loss for chess.
Sep-05-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: Rubinstein was under-rated. And Alekhine could have a bad day.

The bottle is NEVER the inly answer for Alex's defeats.

Sep-05-09  AnalyzeThis: There was no way that Alekhine saw 15...fxg6!! coming. Fantastic move, the move of the game. I bet that white would have been ok with the other capture.
Sep-05-09  fhl: nice game
Sep-05-09  WhiteRook48: an ouch to Alekhine
Sep-05-09  taliakarpovia: Schlehter and after Rubinstein..Sometimes they taught lasker what also chess is..:))) even to young alekhine..
Sep-05-09  hope62: To Once.... yes what you says is exactly what Purdy says about how to master opennings and early middlegames. that is. The key are the rooks!!!!
Sep-06-09  rigel1503: Again to Once: What you say about rooks is very insightful. When I played over games from Horowitz's book "Golden Treasury of Chess" the great combos and sacrifices so often involved the ability to rapidly bring the rooks into play and instinctively know the files where they will be most effective. Two rooks are nominally equal to queen, and often beginners ignore them. It's the equivalent of playing with an extra queen if you know how to use them in the opening and middle game.
Sep-06-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Once: I think the trickiest thing about rooks is the preparation. Getting the pieces off the back rank is part of rook activation. Who was it who said "castling is a rook move"? And then those funny little Re1 or Rd1 moves, often a long time before the combination strikes. Quiet, deadly, subtle.

<rigel1503> Don't know the Horowitz book - do you recommend it?

Sep-07-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  maxi: Do you care to explain, <kevin86: The bottle is NEVER the inly answer for Alex's defeats.>
Sep-09-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  maxi: I agree that the move 15...fxg6! was imaginative, but all that Black has achieved so far is equality. White has a sound development plan in Ndf3, Qe2, Rd1 and Nd4. White cannot allow the rook sacrifice, so he has to play carefully there, but the position is even.
Oct-22-09  fischerstein: What the heck?? 13Qe1?? 14Nh2?? Alekhine MUST have been drunk, those are beginner level blunders. also, the way he practically ignores black's attack later on is extremely unlike a sober Alekhine. Or, maybe he just didn't give a F$#k about this game.
Feb-05-11  Penguincw: Rubinstein's other victory against Alekhine with the black pieces : Alekhine vs Rubinstein, 1910
Dec-20-11  optimal play: In the accompanying annotations by Savielly Tartakower he notes at move 12.h3 "The most reasonable course here is 12.Re1, guarding the e-pawn." That's exactly what Alekhine played against Levenfish the year before Alekhine vs Levenfish, 1911 That game ended in a draw after 45 moves, however in this game he plays h3 before bringing his Queen across to e1 and doesn't move his rook until it's too late. Maybe Alekhine had an idea to improve on that previous game but it certainly backfired against the best player in the world in 1912.
Dec-20-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  visayanbraindoctor:


click for larger view

19...Rxf3


click for larger view

Typical thematic sac that weakens the pawn structure protecting the King, which we just saw recurring in Carlsen vs Nakamura, 2011

Dec-20-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  Garech: Great game from Rubinstein - how many of us would have immediately played 15.hxg6 -capturing towards the centre and opening up the h file instead?

Cheers,

-Garech

Dec-20-11  Penguincw: I like these old games. Just enough annotation. Not too much (e.g. N Davies vs The World, 2008) and not too little (e.g. NN vs Lucena, 1497).
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