| Jun-22-09 | | brankat: Certainly an interesting figure, Mr.S.Rubinstein. The photo suggests, he resembled in appearance his famous father very much. I'll go through some of his games, but I don't really expect to find much of a resemblance there. Isn't it almost always the case with fathers and sons, not only chess-wise? As if there is a certain "talent pool" specific to a given field of human endeavour, from which only so much can be "alloted" to members of an immediate family. R.I.P. Samy Rubinstein. |
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Jun-23-09
 | | HeMateMe: Interesting stuff. I love that book "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." A classic by David Bronstein, I had no idea the cover was painted by a chessplayer. Was THIS Rubinstein a grandmaster? It seems rare for chess champions to produce offspring with similar qualities. Are there any other examples of great players who produced kids who were GMs or IMs? |
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| Jun-23-09 | | YoungEd: Hello, <HeMateMe>--I know that Milan Vidmar had a son, Milan Vidmar Jr., who earned the IM title. There may be other examples, but that's the first that comes to mind. |
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| Jun-23-09 | | twinlark: John Spencer Purdy won the Australian Championship twice. Purdy's father was the famous Cecil John Seddon Purdy, the first correspondence World Champion and four time Australian Champion. His grandfather was Spencer Crakanthorp who had also won the Australian Championship four times. |
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| Jun-23-09 | | Anyi: I guess Samy Rubinstein loved painting too much to become a chess player of grandmaster level.
His rating was about 2200.
Btw, I plan to translate a CREB interview with him into English and to publish it on my website... |
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| Jun-23-09 | | zoren: Please do! Looking forward to it. :) |
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| Jun-25-09 | | Bridgeburner: Here's something more about Samy's life in the concentration camp: <{Rubinstein's] youngest son was sent to a concentration camp, and survived due to his brilliant game, for the Nazi camp commander, who himself was a good chess player, did not want to forgo such a chess competitor.>: http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/sta... |
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Jun-25-09
| | HeMateMe: Reminds me of the movie "Triumph of the Spirit," starring William DeFoe. A true story of a Greek Jew imprisoned in Auchwitz, in Poland. The Greek was a champion boxer of the Balkans, undefeated. The german officers at this camp (there were as many as 1,000 camps) were boxing enthusiasts, and there was a portion of a building set up as an auditorim, with a boxing ring. They would bet on the contestants. The boxers fought till one was knocked out. This guy survived the camps. The one he was in was abandoned in 1945 as the Red Army advanced through Poland. |
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| Jun-25-09 | | vonKrolock: quote, from <Bridgeburner>'s link:<Akiba Rubinstein became a well-known national chess personality. He was invited to competitions in other cities, and he continued progressing until he was invited to the Russian national chess championships in St. Petersburg in 1909, where the most experienced chess players in all of Russia participated, including the world chess grandmaster Dr. Emanuel Lasker. "> So Lasker was Russian!? <"Learn Something New Every Day"> ... But following is very interesting: <"the Rubinsztejn family moved to Bialystok after his mother married Rabbi Heller, who was known as “The Genius (Illuy) of Pinsk”."> Heller = Geller in Russian spelling - depending on law or will he could arrive to be known as <Akiba Geller> |
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| Jun-25-09 | | Shams: <Bridgeburner> There was a Russian master, I forget the name, who was rounded up by the Bolsheviks and sentenced to summary execution-- his name had gotten on a list. But the commander recognized his name and allowed him to play for his life, which he did-- successfully. I imagine it was a positional game, no? |
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| Jun-25-09 | | Bridgeburner: <Shams>
Shades of the classic Ingmar Bergman movie <The Seventh Seal> in which the knight plays a game of chess against Death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:I... Seems like life anticipated art! |
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| Jun-25-09 | | Bridgeburner: <vonKrolock>
You mean <Akiba Heller>! |
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| Jul-14-09 | | brankat: Overall, the article <Bridgeburner> provided is a fair one, I think, despite a lack of details, and some minor inaccuracies. ( Dr Euwe, the former chess grandmaster: Dr.Bronstein; Dr.Widmer...) The author, obviously is not a chess historian. |
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Oct-16-09
 | | Benzol: I hope that the games he played against his father around 1946/47 eventually become available. |
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| May-05-12 | | Karpova: Gerd Stein in 'From Beat Scene Poet to Psychedelic Multi-Media Artist in San Francisco and beyond: 1948-1978' (UC Berkeley 2001): <We were living on 101st Street and Columbus Avenue in a railroad flat, and for a long time we had someone living with us whose name was Sami Rubinstein - no relation to that other Rubinstein. Sami was from Belgium, and he was the son of a world-famous chess player named Akiva Rubinstein. He also was a chess player. He didn't have any money, but he would go down to the Marshall Chess Club and play and come home with a few dollars all the time. He was not his father's equal, but he was tops.He was an artist; he drew like Rembrandt - and I do not mean to put them on an equal level. By "like Rembrandt," I mean that he drew in that style. He knew all Rembrandt's work, particularly the drawings. He would draw portraits of you in that style, and they were fantastic...> Source: Page 378 of J. Donaldson and N. Minev 'The Life and Games of Akiva Rubinstein - Volume 2: The Later Years', 2nd edition, Milford, USA, 2011. |
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| Jun-26-13 | | JimNorCal: A note from the author's preface to Vienna 1922 (Larry Evans):
"...I had indirect contact with Rubinstein through his youngest son Sammy who visited me in New York around 1950, and he never mentioned having spent time in a Nazi concentration camp. He asked to borrow my copy of Teplitz-Schonau 1922 where his father had finished fifth. It was a thick tournament book that I fully expected him to return before he went back to Belgium and I was miffed when he kept it....Over the years I learned that Sammy had won the championship of Brussels, and from time to time I vaguely wondered if I'd ever see my book again. Out of the blue, before Sammy died in 2002, I got a battered parcel in the mail from Belgium- the book I had lent him a half century earlier! In retrospect I'm glad he made good use of it and like to think he savored those dog-eared pages with his father." |
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| Jul-26-20 | | W Westerlund: I know of an anecdote in which Rubinstein played a game in an insignificant tournament against a young, unpromising player. It was the main variation of a Pirc (Nf3, Be2, O-O ... like Karpov used to play against the Pirc). After 20 or so moves Rubinstein was not better and after 30 or so moves, his position had not improved, on the contrary, he had tried in vain to mount an attack on the King. Realising that things look bleak, he asked his opponent if and what he would like to drink. This is probably against the rules now, but in the old days it was common courtesy. His opponent said he would have a coke. Rubinstein disappeared to the bar and returned with two trappistes - heavy stuff made in a monastery brewery. At this point, something broke in the opponent. If Rubinstein thought that this was the way to beat him, he would show him! Fifteen or so moves later on Rubinstein finally resigned. |
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| Dec-01-21 | | TubizianRubinstein: I have played one Belgian Team Championship against him. When I sat down, I asked my opponent name, and he said "Rubinstein".
I was surprised, and asked him if he was related to the famous Akiba.
"I'm his son", he said.
Funnily enough, I played the French Rubinstein defense and lost. So, Samy Rubinstein did beat his father's defense!
He was a master level player (+- 2200), and was playing very quickly. He played many training games against his father during the 40's, and these games can be found in Donaldson's biography. When Samy passed away, I was lucky to go to his library to buy some of the Rubinstein family books. RIP Samy Rubinstein. |
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| Mar-24-22 | | Jan Kersten: Samy Rubinstein died 14th June 2002. Source: https://www.kwabc.org/files/kwabc/n... |
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| Feb-21-23 | | Messiah: <TubizianRubinstein: I have played one Belgian Team Championship against him. When I sat down, I asked my opponent name, and he said "Rubinstein". I was surprised, and asked him if he was related to the famous Akiba. "I'm his son", he said.
Funnily enough, I played the French Rubinstein defense and lost. So, Samy Rubinstein did beat his father's defense! He was a master level player (+- 2200), and was playing very quickly. He played many training games against his father during the 40's, and these games can be found in Donaldson's biography. When Samy passed away, I was lucky to go to his library to buy some of the Rubinstein family books. RIP Samy Rubinstein.>
Interesting story, thank you for sharing it. |
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Kibitzing
