This Week's ChessBase Show: Rubinstein-Alekhine, Karlsbad 1911
We continue this week with our second look at the chess of the great Akiba Rubinstein, one of the greatest players never to become world champion. Rubinstein was great in all phases of the game, of course, but his endgame skill was legendary. A lofty claim, but we'll see evidence for this in our ChessBase show this week.
His victim in our game of the week was Alexander Alekhine, who would go on to become the fourth world chess champion. Despite the caliber of Rubinstein's opponent, he managed to win a rook ending that remains a model for us today. (I would say that's one of the defining features of Rubinstein's greatness; namely, how often he played games, against players of all levels, that looked as if they were produced by textbook writers to educate the general public.) In this one ending, we see beautiful illustrations of such fundamental endgame ideas as the "do not hurry" rule, the principle of two weaknesses, the process of inducing weaknesses, prophylaxis and the active king. These principles may sound like abstractions, but in his hands these tools look as natural as a baby's smile.
So: to join in the fun, here's what you do. First, log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday night (= 3 a.m. Thursday morning CET). Second, go to the Broadcast room. Third, find Rubinstein-Alekhine under the Games tab, double-click on it, and you're good to go. Hope to see you there!