Rubinstein (Move by Move)

GM Zenon Franco has written an absolutely stupendous book on probably the greatest chess ideas generator of all time. This book is divided into five chapters: Positional Play, Playing for the Initiative & the Attack, Endgame Mastery, Rook Endgames & Linking the Opening & the Middlegame. Thirty-four of Rubinstein's greatest games are covered in-depth along with many supplementary games played by himself & players that he had influenced one, two & three generations later. The purpose of these supplementary games is to demonstrate an alternate game going down the path of a different variation & how Akiba's ideas have been implemented by others. So why study Rubinstein? Well, what piqued my interest was the book 'Winning Chess Manoeuvres' by GM Sarhan Guliev. In that book, GM Guliev covered a handful of Rubinstein's masterpieces, in which most of them were not covered in this book. In fact, it could be argued that GM Guliev's book is quite complementary to this book. In 'Winning Chess Manoeuvres', there was an 'around the world' glorious combination that went on for 16 moves when he played against Eugene Znosko-Borovsky in St Petersburg in 1909. I also recall a game which left an indelible impression on the mind of FWC Botvinnik in which the plan was to create a bind on the d5 square (d4 for black), force an exchange of knights, recapture with the e-pawn creating an extended & strong pawn chain which also had the benefit of opening up the e-file, then building up one's heavy pieces on the semi-open e-file hence placing an insurmountable amount of pressure on the backward e6 pawn (e3 for black). Another classic idea was in the 'Spanish Torture' in which Rubinstein playing with the black pieces; after castling on the kingside, eventually moved his f- & g-pawns forward one square to make room for both of his knights to occupy the f7 & g7 squares. I was taken aback by how much control Rubinstein had on the kingside with this formation. Back to GM Franco's book. He heavily borrows the commentary of GM Gelfand, FWC Kasparov & GM Razuvaev; obviously, all of which highly admired Rubinstein's style of play, particularly GM Gelfand. Rubinstein's contributions to opening theory are well covered, which I was delighted with. I found myself in awe going through the games covered in this book, especially the subtle backward moves which were so right! I don't think I'll ever get over how one man could come up with so many ideas. It's like he had taken the baton off of FWC Steinitz & just sprinted away with it, leaving Wilhelm to choke on his dust; as if experiencing blowback. I'm sure the 1st World Champion couldn't have foreseen someone exercising their imagination more than himself. It's very difficult to criticise this book. Towards the end of the book, spelling mistakes & wrong words inserted, did take on a considerable uptick. Apart from that, I don't think I could have asked for a better book. The explanations of the ideas were lucid. Questions were asked of the author at appropriate moments & the reader was asked to give his/her move choice to test one's skills or judgement of Rubinstein's style. Alternate calculations were presented at the most critical moments of the game & where there were potential tactical blunders. The themes that Rubinstein's playing style was well known for, were separated into the aforementioned five chapters which made the division of the book quite logical. Thank you GM Franco for your contribution to this school of chess. I highly recommend this book to anyone who already possesses a firm foundation in chess understanding. This book is a treasure chest of chess ideas for the more advanced player.

My summary: (1) Well-researched annotations: The author, Zenon Franco, is refreshingly non-bias and extremely well researched. His analyses consist of citing what many other greats have said about the position, from Levenfish & Smyslov's "Rook endings", to Kasparov, and the players themselves (Rubinstein, Speilmann, Lasker, etc). He doesn't attempt to re-invent the wheel at every turn and instead he provides what I would think to be (in my humble opinion) a very good summary of all the commentary-history on these games. Note: It's a big change from the other author that has published approx. 150 books (you know who!) who fashions himself to be some sort of poet and takes many creative liberties that are hard to digest for many of us. (2) Boris Gelfand cameo: The author, who I imagine to be on the younger side (but is a GM), apparently has been in extremely close contact with Boris Gelfand for the book. He always mentions "Gelfand thinks this..." or "Gelfand told me that...". Reading between the lines, I believe he must have commissioned, or requested, a great many sit-down sessions with Boris to probe his thinking on many of these great games. This is a great feature!! I can understand that the publisher did not make this clear because they believe it may detract from Zenon's work, but I am here to tell you that the reader is left the better because of it. Do his other books on Anand and Spassky also have this feature? Because I will buy them. The Gelfand commentary is very grounded and non-bias as well. (3) Rook endings: I primarily bought this book for the rook endings, for which Rubinstein is known. On that note, there are 6 games on general endgame, and 6 more on rook endings. These are deeply annotated. There are 22 'other' games on positional play, initiative, attack, etc. I'm not interested in those. I can say that I am quite satisfied with the book even though I only want to read those 12 out of 34 games.

I loved the selection of games - including the famous wins against Lasker and Capablanca. As always, the author (Z. Franco), as is typically the case in this Move by Move Series, threw questions in the middle of games to invite the reader to think which move(s) was/were appropriate in the given positions. After reading this book, I am tempted to believe also that Rubinstein was indeed one of the strongest never to become the world champion!

Para mi. Es el mejor libro que habla de Akiba Rubinstein. Especialmente en su estilo de Juego.

Zenon's passion for Rubenstein comes through, and I am glad I bought the book.

If you are looking for a book to hone your positional and endgame skills, look no further. Zenon Franco has penned a masterpiece using the great Rubinstein as the 'lectures'. $ well spent.

Not sure why, but Rubinstein seemed to play a disproportionate number of games as black.

great

O livro é para quem gosta de ver partidas explicadas de um dos maiores jogadores de xadrez de todos os tempos, Akiba Rubinstein. A precisão dos lances, a lógica, o cálculo e a estratégia quase incomparável do mestre são mostrados pelo autor em aulas lance a lance, como, aliás, diz o título. Estudar os clássicos é imprescindível para quem quer progredir no jogo. Podem comprar tranquilamente, pois o Cyrus explica bem e um detalhe, com humor.

Amazing book!

...de commencer la lecture de ce livre. RUBINSTEIN était un des meilleurs joueurs mondiaux ; il a beaucoup contribué à la théorie des ouvertures et était un spécialiste des finales de tours. C'était le maître à penser de Boris GELFAND (cf. son excellent livre : la prise de décision aux échecs- le jeu positionnel). Les parties sont très détaillées par Zenon Franco qui est un auteur réputé.Ce livre est très utile pour des joueurs de tout niveau.Un seul regret : il manque un volume 2! Hautement recommandable.

I had never studied Rubinstein and I can't imagine a better introduction than this book. I came away with a real appreciation for his style of play. The author has done a great job and this is now on my list of favourite chess books.

Um livro para se estudar e aproveitar cada explicação! Rubinstein tinha uma precisão muito grande , o que é explorado no livro com maestria pelo Zenon Franco! As partidas às vezes tem muitas variáveis, mas há explicação necessária para compreensão do que está acontecendo!Recomendo para os que gostam de xadrez e buscam uma compreensão mais profunda do jogo posicional do grande Rubinstein!