Akiba Rubinstein

He was supposed to play Lasker for the world championship, but the match was canceled due to the war

Chessmetrics Ranking: World Number One part of 1908 and 1912-1914

Tournament Career: winner of 13 super-tournaments:

3-time winner of the Russian Championship

Karlovy Vary 1907

Chigorin Memorial 1909

San Sebastián 1912

Piešťany 1912

German Chess Congress 1912

Hastings International Chess Congress 1922/23

and several others…

Chess Olympiads: for Poland: gold and silver team medals, gold individual medal

Why he deserved it:

Polish chess player Akiba Rubinstein is the type of player who shone like a meteor but then quickly faded. His best years were 1907-1914, during which he was undoubtedly one of the best players in the world. For two consecutive years from 1912-1914, he was the world number one.

His first victory in a major super-tournament came in 1907 in Karlovy Vary, ahead of players like Maróczy, Nimzowitsch, Schlechter, Marshall, Tartakower, Chigorin, and others. In 1912, he recorded one of the best and most dominant seasons ever boasted by a chess player. Wherever he went, he won. At that time, Lasker was the world champion, but few doubted who was the best in the world.

Lasker, of course, knew what was expected of him and he did it. The world chess championship match between Lasker and Rubinstein was scheduled for October 1914. However, the First World War broke out that summer, and the match had to be canceled. When chess tournaments resumed after the war, Rubinstein was no longer the invincible player he once was. The war interrupted his career at its peak, and he couldn’t regain his form. Although he still won some tournaments and was a member of the top 10, he was no longer the main contender for the world championship title. That was the young Cuban Capablanca, who also became the world champion.

In the later phase of his career, Rubinstein had great successes at chess Olympiads, which resumed in the 1920s. He led the Polish team to a gold medal. He last appeared in tournaments in 1931 at the age of fifty. In the last years of his career, he began to develop a mental illness and spent several years in a sanatorium. He died at the age of eighty in 1961.

Best Games:

Georg Rotlewi vs Akiba Rubinstein

Lodz 1907