chessgames.com
Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players · Kibitzing

Chessgames premium membership fee will increase to $39 per year effective June 15, 2023. Enroll Now!

Akiba Rubinstein vs Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
St. Petersburg (1909), St. Petersburg RUE, rd 1, Feb-15
Queen's Gambit Declined: Orthodox Defense. Rubinstein Variation (D61)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Click Here to play Guess-the-Move
Given 19 times; par: 31 [what's this?]

Annotations by Emanuel Lasker.      [80 more games annotated by Lasker]

explore this opening
find similar games 6 more Rubinstein/Znosko-Borovsky games
PGN: download | view | print Help: general | java-troubleshooting

TIP: To see the raw PGN for this game, click on the PGN: view link above.

PGN Viewer:  What is this?
For help with this chess viewer, please see the Olga Chess Viewer Quickstart Guide.
PREMIUM MEMBERS CAN REQUEST COMPUTER ANALYSIS [more info]

A COMPUTER ANNOTATED SCORE OF THIS GAME IS AVAILABLE.  [CLICK HERE]

Kibitzer's Corner
Feb-17-04  Whitehat1963: Interesting game. Lasker annotates.
Feb-05-07  sambo: If white seriously calculated that entire exchange, I'm beyond impressed. That's supernatural.
Dec-31-08  PeterB: An amazing game by Rubinstein, just a complete crush. Black misplays the opening, opens himself up and it's over. Why wasn't AR a world champion!
Jan-18-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: Despite Lasker's reign as world champion, it has been thought that Rubinstein was the strongest player in the world just prior to World War I. (Although international tournaments were held regularly, title matches were rather sporadic in those days, not held yearly.) The great war interrupted Rubinstein's opportunity to play for the title, and then he developed a nervous tick and was never the same. Lasker, on the other hand, played at a high level for decades, well into his 70's. Znosko-Borovsky? He wrote five informative chess books on "How to Play the ..." opening, middle game, and endgame, "The Art of Combination in Chess" and a quick read called "How Not to Play Chess." They're all still in print, probably through Dover publications.
Jan-19-09  Anyi: After WWI Rubinstein reminded Lasker of their contract for a match, and even held a speech at a simultan display in 1920 asking for a triangular world championship match between Lasker, Capablanca, and him, (see book by Donaldson and Minev, p. 370), but at that time and onwards he had no funding for such a match (no rich industrialists supported him any more, and he had a family to support). Interested in more, <fredthebear> and <PeterB>? Come and visit my website on Rubinstein (it's in my profile, copy and paste the address if it doesn't work automatically).
Aug-17-09  garcimitch: what a calculation from move 14 to move 24!
Aug-23-09  WhiteRook48: 14 Nxe4 --> 24 Rf4! chess foresight!
Feb-07-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  LIFE Master AJ: A brilliant game, Tartakower praised this game and called it: "The first great example of Rubinstein's Qc2 system."

See also: Rubinstein vs M Hirschbein, 1927.

Feb-07-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  LIFE Master AJ: They should make this:
"The Game of The Day" here soon.
Feb-07-14  MountainMatt: This is definitely impressive...and I can't help but think it was child's play to a stud like Rubinstein. I bet it took him a whole 2 minutes to calculate the result of moves 14 through 19 (at which point the game is utterly won) - on a good day, I might find it in 2 hours, if ever.
Feb-07-14  john barleycorn: <MountainMatt>Rubinstein 1h 47 min and Znosko 2 h for the game.
Jul-24-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  GrahamClayton: 14...de4 15. Bb5 Bc8 16. Ne5 winning a piece.
Feb-27-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  kingscrusher: Nice game - black's impressive occupation of e4 has downsides to exploit
Feb-27-23  SChesshevsky: EZB looks like he just plays a horrible game here. Not indicative of his ability. Maybe out of form. Had a poor tournament showing. Or maybe, believe it or not, took Rubinstein too lightly. Apparently had a +1 on him.

Feels like he was baffled by the Qc2 , 0-0-0 setup. Went with a kind of bad QID which appears inappropriate. Through in some sloppy play and he goes down ugly.

Think one jewel in EZB's crown is his book "Art of the Chess Combination" , as mentioned by Fred earlier.

Found the read a bit difficult. Maybe the style or maybe the type set. My copy was the old descriptive. But the content is excellent. Focusing on elements of attack. (Ironic, after his lemon here.)

Remember it was Soltis, or maybe it was Silman, who mentioned the book helped him gain a hundred or two ratings points.

Mar-05-23  Gaito: Position after 19...Qg6+


click for larger view

White played here 20.Ka1, a move that seems natural and automatic; even Dr. Lasker did not consider to comment anything here; yet the engine quickly spots that this was a mistake, and instead 20.Kc1! should have been played. Why was 20.Ka1? a mistake; well, the engine anticipates that later on a black rook could invade the square c2 (see the game continuation: 24...Rc2). Of course, for a normal human being it is not easy to anticipate that possibility, but the engine certainly does. Even 20.e4 (the second best move according to Stockfish 15) would have been better than 20. Ka1?

But luckily for White, the game is still won after 20.Ka1? Yet there is a significant difference in the computer's evaluation. After 20.Kc1! Rab8 21.Qd5 Rf5 22.Qe4 fxg2 23.Qxg2 Black could have resigned (evaluation +7.02). After 20.Ka1 the evaluation goes down to +1.78 which still is a winning evaluation.

Mar-05-23  Gaito: Had White moved his king to c1 on the 20th turn, then after 20..Rab8 21.Qd5! Rbd8, the following hypothetical position would have arisen:


click for larger view

WHITE TO MOVE (Hypothetical position)
In this imaginary position, White would win by 22.h5! (the prosaic 22.Qe4 also wins) Rxd5 23.hxg6 h6 24.Bxh6 and wins. This pretty variation would have been out of the question with White's king at a1:


click for larger view

22.h5?? Qxh5! 23.Rxh5 Rxd5, and Black would win owing to the threat of a back-rank mate (see diagram):


click for larger view

24.a3 fxg2, and White could resign.

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

  1. No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
  2. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
  3. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
  4. Nothing in violation of United States law.
  5. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
  6. No trolling.
  7. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
  8. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

Blow the Whistle

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.


NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific game only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

This game is type: CLASSICAL. Please report incorrect or missing information by submitting a correction slip to help us improve the quality of our content.

Featured in the Following Game Collections[what is this?]
Lasker annotates
by bishop
Lasker annotates !
from Chess is like universe .... by arielbekarov
Akiba Rubinstein's Best Games
by Retarf
classicisme
by Duveltje
lasker annotates games
by zakir
woodenbishop's favorite games #3
by woodenbishop
ryszard ochodzki's favorite games
by ryszard ochodzki
Rubinstein's Chess Masterpieces
by Karpova
Akiba Rubinstein's Best Games
by KingG
Round 1
from St Petersburg 1909 by Archives
Anyi's favorite games White wins
by Anyi
Rubinstein Rubies
by chocobonbon
w
from Middlegame Combinations by Peter Romanovsky by hms123
Game 32 in 'My System' by Aron Nimzowitsch
from 99 1900s Grandmasters Annointed Jack by fredthebear
ann
from annotated games & lis short brilliancys by gmlisowitz
Calculations of exchanges
from Positional Masterpieces by Chachaman
mi sistema de nimzovich
by LESTRADAR
Important
by oao2102
bengalcat47's favorite games5
by bengalcat47
189
from Middlegame Strategy by jakaiden
plus 55 more collections (not shown)

Home | About | Login | Logout | F.A.Q. | Profile | Preferences | Premium Membership | Kibitzer's Café | Biographer's Bistro | New Kibitzing | Chessforums | Tournament Index | Player Directory | Notable Games | World Chess Championships | Opening Explorer | Guess the Move | Game Collections | ChessBookie Game | Chessgames Challenge | Store | Privacy Notice | Contact Us

Copyright 2001-2023, Chessgames Services LLC