Rubinstein's World Championship Matches That Never Happened

      Rubinstein has been called the strongest player never to have won a world championship. He tried to get matches with both Lasker and Capablanca, but circumstances intervened and the matches never came off. 
     Lasker held the World Championship from 1894 to 1921. He defended the title several times against players who were not in his league: Frank Marshall, Siegbert Tarrasch and Dawid Janowski. In 1910 he managed to to hold on to the title by drawing a match against Carl Schlechter. 
     Lasker's negotiations for title matches from 1911 were extremely controversial. In 1911 he received a challenge from Capablanca and in addition to making heavy financial demands, he proposed some novel conditions: the match should be considered drawn if neither player finished with a two-game lead; and it should have a maximum of 30 games, but declared over if either player won six games and had a two-game lead. Theoretically such a match might go on for ever so Capablanca objected to the two-game lead clause which put Lasker in a snit and he broke off negotiations. 
 

Rubinstein

    Rubinstein then challenged Lasker for a title match in August 1912 and the match was scheduled for the fall of 1914. Lasker's terms for the match with Rubinstein also included a clause that if Lasker should resign the title after a date had been set for the match, Rubinstein would become world champion.
     When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, war broke out on August 1, 1914 and the Capablanca – Rubinstein match was canceled. 
     After the war, Capablanca considered himself, Lasker and Rubinstein to be the strongest players and he began negotiations with Lasker in January 1920. That's when he published My Chess Career to convince the public of his right to challenge Lasker. But, Rubinstein still had the contract that was unfulfilled and as a compromise he suggested a triangular tournament to determine the champion, but there was no interest. Unfortunately for Rubinstein the war had caused him to lose his financial backers and so that left Capa as Lasker's chief rival. 
     After the war, Lasker resumed dealing with Capa and still insisted on a clause that if he resigned the title after the date had been set for the match, Capablanca would become world champion. 

Capablanca

     On January 23, 1920 Lasker and Capablanca agreed to a title match to begin sometime in 1921. But Rubinstein was not forgotten. Capablanca promised that if he won the match he would accept a challenge from Rubinstein.
     Then on June 27, 1920 Lasker resigned his title and named Capa the new World Champion. Some people questioned Lasker's right to name his successor. Amos Burn, for one, objected to Lasker's naming his successor even though he was happy to see Lasker go. 
     Capa's argument was that if Lasker abdicated, it would be unfair to him as the challenger not to named Champion. Capa was not happy with getting the title handed to him though. The issue was resolved when Lasker, who insisted he was the challenger, agreed to a match against Capa in 1921. At that time he announced that if he won he would resign so the title could go to one of the new generation of players. 
     The match was held in Havana from March 15 to April 27, 1921. The winner would be the first to score 8 wins, draws not counting. If neither player reached 8 points the one with the most wins after 24 games would be the winner. Lasker would receive $11,000 and Capablanca $9,000 and after five games somebody donated an additional $3,000 to the winner $2,000 to the loser. When the score reached +4 -0 =10 in the Capa's favor, Lasker resigned the match. 
     So, what happened to Capa's promise that he would accept a challenge from Rubinstein? At the big London tournament in 1922, which was won by Capablanca ahead of Alekhine, Vidmar and Rubinstein, Capa offered to play him in a match if he could raise the money.  
     Rubinstein had several good tournaments in 1922 and at Vienna (held from November 13 to December 2, 1922) he captured first place in brilliant style, scoring +9 -0 =5. When he was returning home Austrian border guards impounded most of the prize money he had won.  As before, he was not able to raise the money to challenge Capablanca. 
     In tournament play Rubinstein's record against Capablanca was +1 -1 =7, so a match between the two would have been most interesting. By 1932 Rubinstein was suffering from a pathological fear of people and abnormal social behavior. He died in March of 1961. You can read about his final years at Edward Winter's site HERE.