Rubinstein married in 1917.

http://rubina.yfw24.de/

<When the Nazis invaded Belgium and proceeded with their revolting genocide, they came across Rubinstein. He was so far gone that they didn't even bother sending him to a camp.>

In any case is not the first case of a Jewis who had saved the life during WWII thanks to same artistic talent.

However, some of his follow-up moves are more problematic. Let's look at the position after <16.Ne4>:

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The seemingly obvious capture of the White pawn on c5 with the Knight may have been the start of Rubinstein's problems in this game. He may have desired to retain his bishop pair, but it leads directly to the weakening of the Black king side.

If <16...Bxc5> (instead of <16...Nxc5> as actually played) we would have the following position:

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If now <17.Nxc5> then <17...Nxc5> prevents the uncovered attack starting with <18.Bd3> which in the actual game had gained a tempo to compromise Black's King side. The only way for White to recover the pawn in this position is to immediately play <17.Bxe6>, and after <17...Rxe6 18.Nxc5 Nxc5 19.Qxc5> and Black regains the extra pawn by picking off the a pawn with <19...Qxa4>:

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This may not be enough to win, as Black needs to complete his development, but he's in no danger whatsoever.

Even in spite of all this, Rubinstein's move wasn't objectively bad, but I suspect that Alekhine gained psychological supremacy here by taking the initiative. Their last game together in Hastings in which Rubinstein lost a won game may have wrecked his confidence and played on his mind in this position because he again runs his position down with poor moves.

"with <19...Qxa4>:

click for larger view

This may not be enough to win, as Black needs to complete his development, but he's in no danger whatsoever."

Hard to see where black even went wrong or where the critical moves were.

And <Richard Taylor> plays as well as world champion alekhine does...in blitz.

LOL that's just delusional I'm sorry. You must be rated 2800 or something?

But re this game Rubinstein played uncharacteristically badly about move 15.

I think most of us on CG.com would have wrapped things up much as Alekhine did here. I am more impressed with Alekhine's overall play rather than specific "combinations". He, like Kasparov, was a deeper player than this more or less "Coffee House" example seems to show.

I played through all of the books by Alekhine and one by Alexander covering all his games. Of course they are great games but often more for the "positional" insight of Alekhine. The tactical stuff any GM of any time could pull of.

The difference is that for every combo I could play Alekhine played thousands and many blindfold.

So, the point is not to over venerate these guys but to study tactics and see if one can play something similar: which is how we learn, by imitating.

Paradoxically I might well miss such an attack in a slower game. In fact I would do so in most games. Point is that for a player of A's level, this is not so extraordinary, nor is it out of reach of us of the lower orders...

I didn't mean to imply I was a chess genius! I am far from that, I struggle to work moves out like most of my fellow woodpushers...Now and then, that is rarely, I pull off a nice one. But of course (in those scarce instances) I also need a lot of luck, as I often miss the defensive moves etc.

There never seems enough time to calculate these combos. There is one really complex one by Alekhine that defeated me completely. I spent about 2 to 3 hours trying to calculate it.

19...Kf8 has been mentioned above. So has 23...Qd6, but with no analysis given. Is it really good enough? After 23...Qd6 <24. Rfd1> what is the follow-up?