Every Single Piece Got Involved in this LETHAL Attack!
My very first post last week was about a beautiful game between two lesser known GM's played over twenty years ago. This week, I'm back with a more exciting game, featuring counterintuitive tactics, piece activity, and beautiful sacrifices, all leading to a powerful attack.
It is the date 26 December 1907, and Gersz Rotlewi and Akiba Rubinstein are playing a chess game in Łódź, Poland. Rubinstein is considered to be one of the strongest chess players never to have become World Champion. He played at a time where Emanuel Lasker was prominent and when Capablanca was rising in the ranks.
You can follow along with my annotations at the bottom of the page, although you can also view the game here. I would also encourage, as always, that you look into the game at further depth on your own.
Rotlewi with the white pieces, Rubinstein with the black pieces and the game starts out normally with a Symmetrical Tarrasch. This opening basically has black copying whatever white does in the Queen's Gambit for the first five or so moves. In the Tarrasch, black might often sacrifice a pawn early in the game for great piece activity. After more unexciting development, black does offer white a pawn on move 10 with Qe7. If white chooses to take take the pawn by trading a pair of knights, black will play 13. Rd8, lining up with the white queen and threatening to play Bxb4+, revealing the rook and the white queen will fall. With this move, black gains an extra tempo (since white must spend a move to relocate the queen out of danger), so white declines black's sacrifice.
On move 15, black plays Ne5, realizing that the white knight must trade itself. After the trade, white has one less defender of the king and the bishop on e5 is nice for black. If white ignores the knight, black wins with Nxe3, and after Qxe3 then Bxh2+ reveals the rook and the queen falls. So, white chooses to trade the knight, avoiding dangers like hanging the queen. There is a threat here if white does nothing, and that threat is Bxh2+, followed by Qd6+ double attacking the white bishop on d3 and black wins a pawn. White avoids this, and plays f4, temporarily blocking the bishop. However, this is an agressive move, and it does weaken the king a little bit.
On move 19, white makes a horrible mistake by playing e5. Black now has a strong light squared bishop, and after Bb6+, Rubinstein's dark squared bishop also gets in on the attack, taking advantage of the weak diagonal that white created by playing f4 a few moves ago. After Bb6+, black plays a nice move, Ng4. If the knight is taken, then the bishop on d3 falls. The white bishop tries to block black's light squared bishop by hoping for a trade, but now black plays Qh4, threatening mate. Black also had Nxg2, snatching a pawn, and if the knight is taken by the king then Qh4 is checkmate. Nevertheless, Qh4 was played by Rubinstein. White attacks the queen while also defending the threat by playing g3, and now the amazing Rxc3! Sacrificing the queen, but more importantly removing a defender of the bishop on e4. Rotlewi takes the queen, and now Rubinstein plays another wonder, Rd2!!!! Forcing the white queen away from defending the e4 bishop. Note that if Qe1, then Rxh2 is checkmate. The white queen takes the rook, but now Bxe4+ anyway, and it is mate in 5! The king is trapped, so the queen must block on h2.
Now, instead of taking the queen immediately (in fact, white would be better if Rubinstein took the queen), black plays the critical Rh3! The queen is pinned on h2, and mate in 1 is unstoppable! If the bishop on e4 is taken, then Rxh2 anyway, and mate is delivered! If white plays any other move, then Rxh2 is checkmate, because the queen is, still, pinned. Also, the bishop on b6 does a great job of defending the only escape square for white (f4 earlier in the game was a pretty bad move). Since mate is coming no matter what, Rotlewi resigns.
This truly was Rubinstein's immortal game, proving how piece activity is incredibly important when initiating an attack on the opponent. It is also an important lesson on Rotlewi's side, as we learn to not weaken our kings with overly aggressive moves. Seven moves ago, no one would have guessed that a strong attack would wipe out white's defenses so quickly. Notice towards the end of the game that every single piece plays a role in Rubinstein's fatal, sweeping attack. Overall, this was a great game with fun ideas, especially the tactical motifs that distracted the white queen away from guarding the e4 bishop.
My annotations are below. Please flip the board to view the game from Rubinstein's point of view. Enjoy the beautiful tactics, and let me know in the comments what you liked about the game. See you next week! 
