Rubinstein — Mieses
Bad Kissingen, 1928
- Akiba Rubinstein (1880–1961)A Polish grandmaster (FIDE title, 1950) rated the world's strongest player from 1912 to 1914 by the retrospective Chessmetrics rankings, yet he never played a match for the world title.
- Jacques Mieses (1865–1954)A German chess master awarded the honorary FIDE grandmaster title in 1950 at age 84 — one of the title's first recipients — after fleeing Nazi Germany for Britain in 1938.
In the next example, Rubinstein's opponent could not accept the threatening position of the enemy's central pawns and decided to destroy one of them, even though this carried great danger. Rubinstein had foreseen this possibility and punished his opponent with a tactical technique.
Black's last move was 14...♕d8-e7. Here is what Nimzowitsch wrote about this move in the tournament book: "...wanting at all costs to win a pawn, but the trouble is that winning this pawn means losing the game":
- 15.
- Black persists in this plan, deciding to destroy the defender of the central pawns — the c3 knight
- Nimzowitsch recommends this move, to counter the e4-e5 breakthrough. It seems White's position would still be preferable here too, thanks to the strong central pawns
- 16.
- Consistent, but bad
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
- Black has helped White seize the important a1-h8 diagonal. On top of that, new trouble struck: the e-file opened, and the knight that had taken the central pawn came under a pin
- 19.
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
- Black resigned
A strong central pawn position can hold not only through piece support, but also through various tactical threats. Finding such tactical moments is of course harder than simple defenses, but you have to look for them.
In this example, the opening of lines (files and diagonals) after the central pawn's destruction is typical, and it is what doomed the "attacker."