Who was Akiba Rubinstein?

Rubinstein’s childhood was marred by extreme poverty and 10 of his 12 siblings died of tuberculosis in childhood. He learned chess at the fairly late age of 14 and though his family originally planned for him to become a rabbi, he abandoned his studies in his late teens and devoted himself entirely to chess.

His career began with matches against the Polish player Georg Salwe and local tournaments in his home city of Lodz. He steadily increased his strength during the first years of the 20th century until he achieved a breakthrough by winning the Karlsbad tournament in 1907 (ahead of such players as Nimzowitsch and Maroczy).

The following brilliancy played in Lodz in 1907 showcases the strength of the young Rubinstein:

Benefiting from some inaccurate opening play by his opponent, Rubinstein plays energetically and finds a brilliant queen sacrifice to win the game.

During the next few years Rubinstein cemented himself as one of the best players in the world. In 1912 he went on a magical run, winning four consecutive major tournaments starting with San Sebastian, where he played this topsy-turvy encounter against Nimzowitsch:

It was during this run of success that he wrote to Emanuel Lasker, challenging him to play a match for the World Championship. Lasker accepted Rubinstein’s challenge but the outbreak of World War I canceled the match.

After the war Rubinstein moved to Sweden. He was active in tournament play and played this interesting Sicilian against Rudolf Spielmann in Gothenburg in 1920:

Rubinstein played actively during the following decade, achieving good results and was considered a primary candidate for the World Championship. His last good year of tournament play would be 1929, when he finished 2nd in Budapest defeating Johannes van den Bosch in a Grunfeld:

Rubinstein would retire from chess a few years later. He suffered from mental illness and was briefly committed to a sanatorium though he would soon be re-united with his family. After his retirement his family also had severe financial problems, which various friends in the chess community tried to alleviate by publishing books of his famous games.

He spent the later years of his life still avidly following chess and took on two students in Paul Devos and Alberic O’Kelly de Galway (of O’Kelly Sicilian fame). In 1950 FIDE made Rubinstein one of the inaugural recipients of the Grandmaster title. His sons recalled that he actively followed the World Championship match between Botvinnik and Smyslov in 1954 though he no longer played himself. Rubinstein passed away in 1961 at the age of 80.

I hope you enjoyed this short biography of Akiba Rubinstein. This is by no means a comprehensive account: if you have any interesting facts or anecdotes about Rubinstein, feel free to share them in the forum!

Until next time,
Dan