Schacksnack

One of the greatest non-world champion chess players of all time is considered to be Akiba (Akiva; Akibah) Rubinstein (1882-1961). He belongs to a group of players like Aron Nimzowitsch, Salo Flohr, Leonid Stein, and Paul Keres who, due to various circumstances, didn’t get the chance to play a World Championship match. In the case of Rubinstein, it was the First World War that definitively disrupted his chess career at the highest level. The failure in St. Petersburg in 1914 also strongly contributed to Rubinstein losing all potential opportunities to challenge the then-World Champion Emanuel Lasker. During this time, Capablanca was considered the primary threat to Lasker, followed by Alekhine.

Rubinstein’s golden years as a chess player were 1907-1912, and according to Chessmetrics.com, his best year was 1913 when he achieved the astonishing rating of 2789 in June. The trend in 1914 shows a decline. After the First World War, Rubinstein was no longer seen as a main contender, and as we know, José Raül Capablanca had the opportunity to face the giant Lasker. However, Rubinstein is counted among the top four players in the world from 1907-1922. Therefore, Rubinstein is worth considering both for entertainment and educational purposes, especially during the period 1907-1912. In the first case, I can recommend the game Gersz Rotlewi – Akiba Rubinstein, Lodz 1907, and in the latter case, Akiba Rubinstein – Carl Schlechter, San Sebastian 1912.

If you want to acquire a book about this chess giant, as he truly was a giant even though he didn’t get to challenge for the World Championship title, he is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, when it comes to treating rook endgames. The most well-known book is Rubinstein’s Chess Masterpieces – 100 Selected Games (1941), annotated by Hans Kmoch and translated by Barnie F. Winkelman. This book has been highly recommended by the former World Champion Tigran Petrosian (1963-1969). For the English readership, later published works include volumes such as The Life & Games of Akiba Rubinstein Volume 1: Uncrowned king (2006) and The Life & Games of Akiba Rubinstein Volume 2: The Later Years (2011) by authors John Donaldson and Nikolay Minev. The difference between these books and Kmoch’s book is that the former is based on all the played games of Rubinstein, including recently discovered games from Ostende 1906, while the latter is based on a selection of Rubinstein’s best and most instructive games. There is also another recommended book in English called Akiba Rubinstein’s Chess Academy compiled by Viktor Glatman, with comments by GM V. Chekhov, B. Gelfand, A. Huzman, A. Khalifman, M. Krasenkov, S. Lputian, I. Novikov, E. Pigusov, Y. Razuvaev, and P. Swidler, to name just a few of the great names.

If you want to acquire a book that truly does justice to his stature, one of the most renowned books in the former Soviet Union (before the Commonwealth of Independent States) is Akiba Rubinstein (1980) by Yuri Razuvaev and Valery Murakhver. This book had an excellent reputation and has always been highly recommended by Boris Gelfand, the former challenger to Viswanathan Anand at Moscow in 2012. I remember when I was younger, I lamented the fact that this book was not available in English, but now this hefty book (571 pages), believe it or not, is available in English thanks to the tremendous and diligent work of Jan Verendel, the editor of Verendel Publishing. Another person who deserves mention is the translator, Andrey Deviatkin, who has also provided data analysis in the footnotes. Thanks to Deviatkin’s translation, we can not only enjoy commentary on the selection of games but also delve into highly interesting chapters such as ”In the Footsteps of Steinitz” (Murakhveri), ”Rubinstein and chess theory,” and ”The Endgame” (Razuvaev). Many of you reading this review are surely aware that Verendel previously released a new translation of the hefty book World Chess Championship 1948 (544 pages) with comments by Estonian Grandmaster Paul Keres, also known as ”The eternal second.” This book received great reviews worldwide, and I am convinced that the Rubinstein work will receive similar acclaim. The cover is much more appealing compared to the one for Keres, with the title Akiba Rubinstein written in gold text while he kindly looks at us from another time.

The book has many merits, including a wealth of color photographs. This technique involves adding colors to a black-and-white or tinted photographic image to recreate the original scene’s colors. It is done to provide a more vivid and realistic visual experience of the photographed subject, especially for historical images where color photography was not available at the time the photo was taken. Such photographs can have artistic or historical significance and are often used to add a new dimension to black-and-white or tinted images. To my knowledge, this is the first time in chess book history that such photographs have been presented, making it easier for readers and viewers to step into a bygone era. It is not very common for chess literature to make an effort to find new images, especially ones that have been colorized, so a tremendous amount of effort has gone into the production of this book. I know because I was one of the many who proofread the book. Verendel put so much work into ensuring the best possible proofreading that he even printed ten copies in a stapled form in advance and distributed them to all the proofreaders. So if you manage to find any errors or peculiarities in the text, you can congratulate yourself.

The price of 45 Euros is affordable in my opinion. The best way to purchase the book is directly from Jan Verendel’s website, and for Swedish readers, the postage is 109 SEK. This means that you can get the book delivered to your mailbox for just over 500 SEK, which is a worthwhile investment as Rubinstein has never been presented in such a comprehensive hardcover book before. Unfortunately, many publishers fail to understand the importance of publishing hefty hardcover books. This applies to reputable publishers like New in Chess and Everyman Chess. I believe that chess publishers who release substantial works in the field of chess history have a lot to gain from it, especially if the books also include meticulously produced photographs. Many chess enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting this type of book, but at present, there is essentially only one available, with the exception of the American publisher McFarland.

Thomas Engqvist