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Rubinstein 
 
Akiba Rubinstein
Number of games in database: 847
Years covered: 1897 to 1947
Overall record: +414 -152 =271 (65.7%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      10 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Queen's Pawn Game (117) 
    D02 A46 D05 D00 A40
 Orthodox Defense (38) 
    D61 D63 D64 D53 D52
 Nimzo Indian (35) 
    E38 E34 E46 E21 E44
 Queen's Gambit Declined (30) 
    D37 D30 D31 D36
 Tarrasch Defense (29) 
    D33 D32 D34
 Dutch Defense (19) 
    A84 A81 A85 A90
With the Black pieces:
 Ruy Lopez (85) 
    C77 C79 C98 C88 C68
 Queen's Pawn Game (46) 
    D02 D00 D04 D05 A46
 Four Knights (44) 
    C48 C49 C47
 Orthodox Defense (40) 
    D63 D60 D61 D52 D66
 French Defense (40) 
    C01 C11 C10 C00 C02
 Queen's Gambit Declined (32) 
    D31 D30 D37
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Rotlewi vs Rubinstein, 1907 0-1
   Rubinstein vs Lasker, 1909 1-0
   Rubinstein vs Hromadka, 1923 1-0
   Rubinstein vs Capablanca, 1911 1-0
   Rubinstein vs Salwe, 1908 1-0
   Rubinstein vs Schlechter, 1912 1-0
   Rubinstein vs Janowski, 1925 1-0
   Alekhine vs Rubinstein, 1912 0-1
   Rubinstein vs Duras, 1908 1-0
   Rubinstein vs Alekhine, 1911 1-0

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces by Karpova
   Akiba Rubinstein's Best Games by KingG
   The Unknown Rubinstein - Forgotten treasures by Karpova
   Rubinstein's Rook Endings by kiadd
   Akiba Rubinstein's Rook Endings by Knight Pawn
   Akiba Rubinstein by Archives
   classicisme by Duveltje
   Rubinstein Rubies by chocobonbon
   San Sebastian 1912 by Archives
   ryszard ochodzki's favorite games by ryszard ochodzki
   San Remo 1930 by suenteus po 147
   London 1922 by Benzol

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Akiba Rubinstein
Search Google® for Akiba Rubinstein


AKIBA RUBINSTEIN
(born Oct-12-1882, died Mar-15-1961) Poland (citizen of Belgium)

[what is this?]
Akiba Kielowicz Rubinstein was born October 12, 1882, in Stawiski, Poland, to a Jewish family which had planned for him to become a rabbi. Rubinstein did not complete his studies and instead decided to devote his full time to chess following fifth place in a tournament in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1903, and his career flourished from 1907 to 1912. He won the tournament in Carlsbad in 1907, shared first at St. Petersburg that year, and in 1912, he won four consecutive major tournaments: San Sebastian, Bad Pistyan, Wroclaw and Vilnius (This adds up to 5 consecutive wins in strong tournaments in the span of 12 months, including Warsaw 1911).

Rubinstein was never given a chance to play the world champion Emanuel Lasker because their match for the World Championship, scheduled to begin in October 1914, was cancelled after World War One broke out and after the War he was unable to raise sufficent funds to meet the financial demands. His career took a dive due to a bad showing in St. Petersburg in 1914, and then shortly thereafter the outbreak of World War One, and by then the active challenger Jose Raul Capablanca emerged to become the world championship contender. After the war, he was still a respectable grandmaster, winning at Vienna in 1922 and was the leader of the Polish team that won the Chess Olympiad in Hamburg in 1930, with a stunning record of 13 wins, 4 draws, and no losses.

After 1932 he withdrew from active tournament play, mainly due to his prevalent schizophrenic tendencies. He passed away in Antwerp, Belgium in 1961. Today, the the Rubinstein variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3) is the most popular line of the Nimzo-Indian.

Former World Champion Garry Kasparov wrote that: "Careful analysis shows that modern chess, proceeding from the Botvinnik era, is very strongly influenced by the games of Rubinstein, who was, essentially, one of the fathers of modern chess history." (On My Great Predecessors Part I)

Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik once said that Rubinstein was: “...an incredibly talented and fantastic chess player...Why didn't he become a World Champion? That's a mystery to me…” (http://www.kramnik.com/eng/intervie...)

Here's an overview over Rubinstein's individual scores against the strongest players of his time: User: RubinsteinScores

Here's more on Rubinstein's life (what is known about his personal life, up to 1920 at the moment): User: RubinsteinLife

Here's an overview over Rubinstein's matches (only until and including 1920 at the moment): User: RubinsteinMatches


 page 1 of 34; games 1-25 of 847  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves Year Event/LocaleOpening
1. Rubinstein vs G G Bartoszkiewicz 1-017 1897 CorrespondenceC55 Two Knights Defense
2. Rubinstein vs NN 1-018 1902 ?C24 Bishop's Opening
3. Rubinstein vs P P Benko 1-018 1903 RUS-ch03A84 Dutch
4. Rubinstein vs V N Kulomzin  1-020 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipD32 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch
5. M Lowtzky vs Rubinstein 1-029 1903 RUS-ch03D31 Queen's Gambit Declined
6. N Kalinsky vs Rubinstein  0-139 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipC22 Center Game
7. Rubinstein vs S F Lebedev  1-059 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipC10 French
8. Rubinstein vs Znosko-Borovsky ½-½24 1903 Kiev All-Russian chD53 Queen's Gambit Declined
9. Salwe vs Rubinstein ½-½39 1903 RUS-ch03D02 Queen's Pawn Game
10. Rubinstein vs A Rabinovich  0-149 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipA84 Dutch
11. Rubinstein vs O Bernstein 0-125 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipC45 Scotch Game
12. Rubinstein vs Dus Chotimirsky 0-175 1903 RUS-ch03D05 Queen's Pawn Game
13. Yurevich vs Rubinstein  0-164 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipA03 Bird's Opening
14. Rubinstein vs Salwe 1-032 1903 Lodz mD05 Queen's Pawn Game
15. Rubinstein vs NN 1-022 1903 Handicap tournament ?000 Chess variants
16. Chigorin vs Rubinstein 1-033 1903 KievC00 French Defense
17. Schiffers vs Rubinstein 0-121 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipC11 French
18. S Izbinsky vs Rubinstein 0-136 1903 RUS-ch03C81 Ruy Lopez, Open, Howell Attack
19. Rubinstein vs V Nikolaev  1-040 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipD37 Queen's Gambit Declined
20. Chojnacki vs Rubinstein 0-123 1903 Handicap tournament000 Chess variants
21. Salwe vs Rubinstein 1-030 1903 Lodz mB57 Sicilian
22. Rubinstein vs S Levitsky ½-½38 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipD08 Queen's Gambit Declined, Albin Counter Gambit
23. W Von Stamm vs Rubinstein 0-127 1903 Third All-Russian ChampionshipD02 Queen's Pawn Game
24. Rubinstein vs Salwe  0-131 1904 Second MatchD53 Queen's Gambit Declined
25. Rubinstein vs Salwe 1-037 1904 Second MatchD53 Queen's Gambit Declined
 page 1 of 34; games 1-25 of 847  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Rubinstein wins | Rubinstein loses  
 

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 31 OF 31 ·  Later Kibitzing >
May-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  acirce: <percyblakeney> to the rescue as always when someone gives Kramnik too much credit. Although I agree that having Kramnik as 3rd is just wrong if we are not talking objective strength.
May-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  lostemperor: <percy> in all fairness I don't see how you can put Alekseev #20 before people like Kamsky, Leko, Aronian and Carlsen who is 5 in the ratinglist now? Yes and they are probably better that Weiss too.
May-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  percyblakeney: <in all fairness I don't see how you can put Alekseev #20 before people like Kamsky, Leko, Aronian and Carlsen who is 5 in the ratinglist now?>

I don't put him anywhere, it's FIDE that rank him as number 20 in the world right now.

May-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  lostemperor: I take that back <percy> I forgot to read the word Alekseev "not" in your list!
May-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  percyblakeney: <lostemperor> It's OK :-)
May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  zoat22: Maybe I disagree with KRamnik being number three in the list, although he should certainly be in the top ten, but. lets get this straight: There is NO CHANCE of a player like Lasker (who was great) being better than Kramnik... This might be because chess has developed more nowadays, but that is no excuse... And for the same simple reason, <Stein>, or <Weiss>, or <Janowski> just cannot be ahead of current top twenty players in the world.
May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  TheAlchemist: <zoat22> Most lists are about greatness and not absolute strength. We should distinguish between absolute strength (which is what you're talking about and which favours today's players largely due to theoretical and technological advancements) and relative strength (against one's contemporaries), which would, in my opinion, constitute greatness.
May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Akavall: <It seems a bit strange to place a player that never had been the best player in the world>

Kramnik didn't have his own era like Karpov and Kasparov did, but I'd say he was the best player in the world in 2006, maybe 2000 (not sure though).

May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  square dance: <akavall> good point. its actually pretty clear that kramnik was the best player in the world starting from his comeback at the 2006 olympiad all the way up to the mexico city world championship.
May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  percyblakeney: <I'd say he was the best player in the world in 2006>

Maybe, but the list was made before Elista, when it was hard to say if his shared first with Svidler in Dortmund was a better result than for example Topalov's shared first in Wijk and win in Sofia.

I personally rank Kasparov as the best player year 2000, as I for example rank Kramnik ahead of Shirov in 1998. But all these things are subjective questions I guess. I just think Kramnik being far ahead of Lasker on a greatest ever list looks a bit strange, the latter was after all the clearly best player in the world for maybe 30 years, and very competitive for almost 20 more.

May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  square dance: <pb> again, the way i understood this list was that they came up with a mathematical formula that ranked the players. why harp on kramnik for being 3rd by some statistical measure? why not harp on the form of measurement that puts him there?
May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  percyblakeney: <why harp on kramnik for being 3rd by some statistical measure?>

I'm definitely not meaning that it's Kramnik's fault that he's third. :-) I think it's strange to see Andrei Sokolov almost 30 places ahead of Steinitz as well, but anyone may of course construct any type of list they want, with or without statistical measures.

May-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  zoat22: <percyblakeney> i dont find it strange at all to see Andrei Sokolov ahead of Steinitz... His games were probably higher quality, if only because chess players understand more nowadays..
Jun-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  lostemperor: I must say Anand,s top 10 list has a lot of similarities with mine. He put Fischer, Morphy and Capablanca on the top four spots only then followed by Karpov and Kasparov although he didn't specificly put a number to them. So both Kramnik preferences on his comments on his predecessors and Anand's top 10 have several striking similarities with my modest list, independently, I noticed.
Jun-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  RookFile: The Turk was the strongest player ever.
Jun-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  lostemperor: Back to Rubinstein; I see that there are two quotes in Rubinstein biography from Kasparov and Kramnik. The quote of Reuben Fine, I was looking for is not here at chessgames however, looking for it with the extensive search option. So I checked my local chess café. It is there in the dictionary of chess from Edward R. Brace. I found three quotes on Rubinstein. Something I've read a long time ago but have almost quite forgotten:

"The most perfect demonstrations of Steinitz teachings"-- Richard Réti

"He possessed almost a super-natural feeling for the endings and rook endings in particular" --- Max euwe

"Better chess cannot be played by mortal man" --- Reuben Fine

Jun-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <Back to Rubinstein>

How dare you, <lost emperor>?

Seriously though, thank you for those quotes.

Jun-03-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Knight13: <acirce> But Kramnik is too hard to beat, so maybe he DOES deserve 3rd place. He's also one of the very few that can pull out wins in seemingly drawn positions.

Topalov coming in 22 is just wrong!!! His style is more like Mikhail Tal's a little bit, but he DOES win a lot of games with it! Doesn't matter if his moves are bizzare and makes mistakes, the opponent doesn't see it, so isn't that why he was #1 on the ranking list back then and also FIDE World Champion?

Jun-03-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: <It was Reti who gave us perhaps the best description of Rubinstein’s play. In Modern Ideas in Chess (1943; translation by John Hart) he has this to say:

… he is the greatest artist amongst chess players. Whilst in all of Schlechter’s beautiful games there is to be found playful delight comparable to the joyful dance, and whilst with Lasker a dramatic struggle captivates the onlooker, with Rubinstein all is refined tranquillity; for with him in building up his game the position given to every piece is the necessary one. It is not a matter of a fight for him [the contrast here is clearly with Lasker], but the working out of a victory, and so his games create the impression of a great structure from which no stone dare be lifted. (p.95)>

http://www.compulsivereader.com/htm...

Jul-05-08   Anyi: When I cam back from my holidays I found out that a Rubinstein-inspired short story, which I had submitted to a writing competition, has won the first prize. You can read the story on my website on AR: http://www.rubina.yfw24.de The other thing is that I'm going to write an article about chess in Yiddish. In Warsaw two weeks ago I found two problems in a Yiddish magazine from 1912 and received a copy from an unknown Yiddish column. "Die Schack-Zeytung" by Salwe, for which Rubinstein wrote, is available at YIVO, and I will soon order it... If anyone if you has seen a Yiddish chess column, please contact me!
Jul-05-08   Jim Bartle: Anyi: Too bad I can't read German well enough any more. But even worse, I can't read essays without paragraph breaks! (This includes Remembrance of Things Past, so you're in good company.)
Jul-05-08   Anyi: There are paragraph breaks in my word file of the story, but the program didn't take it over automatically, will have to do it manually. And if I have time, I'll translate the story into English, and inform you about it.
Jul-05-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: <Anyi>
Did you read my entry in your guestbook regarding the Rubinstein-Salwe game? It's fantastic that you found new games - are you going to submit them to <chessgames.com>?
Jul-06-08   Anyi: Yes, thank you, Karpova! Will check the game at home and change it. Yes, I will submit the two games I found, the next time I have internet access for longer...don't have internet access at home since April (it makes me very furious!). What's the procedure of submitting games again?
Jul-06-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: <Anyi>
Use this link to upload games: PGN Upload Utility
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