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  • Thursday, September 29, 2022

    Unheralded Players, Forgotten Tournaments

         In his early days Fred Reinfeld wrote some excellent chess books, but they didn't sell so he took to writing junk, a trend not a few chess authors today have followed, and it made him a comfortable living. 
         One characteristic of a lot of Reinfeld's chess books was that he neglected to give details about the game such as the date, tournament and names of the players! 
         The following game is an example, but at least we know the names of the players and since the game was published in January, 1943, no doubt it was played in 1942, but the tournament was not given. 
         The player of the white pieces was given only as "M. Fish" while black was played by "S. Rubinow", who we know was Sol Rubinow, a Master who was born in New York City on November 6, 1923 and died on February 22, 1981. 
         It’s difficult to say exactly how good Rubinow was because his heyday which was before there was a rating list. However, after the advent of the rating list, he became a Life Master. When the USCF published its first rating list in November of 1950, Rubinow was rated 2243, which at that time was considered "Expert", not Master. 
         Chess was not his only interest. He was also a master bridge player and he became very prominent at his job...he was an authority on biomathematics, which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern their structure, development and behavior. That's opposed to experimental biology which deals with the conduction of experiments to prove and validate the scientific theories. I hope that clears up any questions about Rubinow's day job. 
         Beginning in 1964, Rubinow was a professor of biomathematics at the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. He was noted for research and papers papers on cancer research. 
         In 1943, he was intercollegiate chess champion. In 1952, he won the Massachusetts State Championship. He also took part in several U.S. Championships. 
         Dr. Rubinow died at the age of 57 at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center after having been hospitalized for two months following complications resulting from brain surgery. 
         Alas, the master Rubinow managed to lose to Fish in the following short, sharp, exciting game. It was, as Reinfeld stated, a fascinating game, but it was not the lopsided beating that he insinuated. 
     
     

    A game that I liked (Komodo 14)

    M. FishSol Rubinow1–0B56Unknown1942Stockfish 15
    Sicilian Defense 1.e4 c5 2.f3 c6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 d6 6.e3 Unusual, but not bad. g4 Black usually play 6...e6, but the text, which tries to take advantage of white's last move actually gives better results in practice. 7.c4 Normally white would play 7.Bb5 or even 7.Bg5. Instead, white is aiming for sharp play even if it means burdening himself with double isolated e-Pawns and a weakened King's position. xe3 8.fxe3 e5 The alternative is 7...e6, but from e5 the N cannot be driven off and it also guards f7. 9.b3 g6 Reinfeld was critical of this because he thought Rubinow was underestimating white's attacking potential. He suggested, without any analysis, 9...Be6 saying it was much safer. Actually, there is nothing at all wrong with 9...g6 and I suspect that the suggested 9...Be6 was a misprint ant it should have read simply 9...e6. 9...e6 10.xe6 fxe6 11.xe6 and white is winning. 9...e6 10.f3 Black must not play ...Nxf3 because it reinforces white's weak Ps. b6 11.d4 d7 Black has a positional advantage. 10.0-0 h6 Reinfeld blasted this move claiming black need not be in a big hurry to take the e-Pawn because it's a weakness that's not going away. He recommended 10...Bg7 instead. In fact, both moves have been played in this position, but Reinfeld does seem correct in his assessment that 10...Bg7 would be better. 10...g7 11.f3 0-0 12.d5 e6 13.d2 b6 Black is much better. Rothe,G (2171) -Miroshnichenko,E (2670) Reykjavik 2011 11.d5 This turns out to be a poor choice that allows black to gain the upper hand. 11.f3 is a safe alternative after which black can't claim any advantage. xe3+ 12.h1 g4 White can play it safe with 13.Qe1 or he can try the spectacular 13.xe5 xd1 14.xf7 a5 15.axd1 15.xh8 g4 16.f7 d4 17.h3 xc3 18.hxg4 xb2 19.ab1 favors black. 15...0-0 16.d8+ e6 17.xf8+ xf8 18.xe6+ e8 19.f1 c8 20.d5 In this complicated position the only good line is... d2 20...h6 21.c3 Black has no good moves and white is winning! a6 22.g3 Black is running out of moves. c6 23.f6+ e7 24.g8+ d7 25.xh6 c8 26.f7+ c6 27.d5+ b5 28.d4+ c5 29.xb7 mates in two. b6 30.b4+ xb4 31.e6# 21.f8+ d7 22.f7+ c6 22...xe6 23.e7# 23.a4+ b5 24.d8+ c5 24...xd8 25.c7# 25.e6+ c6 25...c4 26.b3# 26.d8+ draws. 11...0-0 This position was reached in a game many years later! 12.e1 12.f5 gxf5 13.exf5 e6 14.fxe6 fxe6 15.h5 g7 16.xf8+ xf8 17.f1 exd5 18.xd5+ h8 19.e4 h6 20.h3 d7 21.d1 g5 White resigned, Plank,P (2083) -Levin,F (2523) Bad Woerishofen 2003 12...a5 A waste of time according to Reinfeld. True, it loses black's advantage. Better were either 12...e6 or 12... Bg7 and black keeps his positional advantage. 13.h4 This attack on e7 equalizes for white, but not more. g7 14.xe7 xe3+ 14...f6 was neither better nor worse. Five Shootouts from this position resulted in five draws, For example... 15.d5 a4 16.f4 xf4 17.exf4 axb3 18.fxe5 bxa2 19.exf6+ xf6 20.xf6+ xf6 21.xf6 xf6 22.f2 e6 23.e3 d5 24.xe6 xe6 25.exd5+ xd5 26.d3 g5 27.c4+ c5 28.c3 a4 29.b3 a8 30.c3 a4 31.b3 b4+ 32.a3 xc4 33.xa2 e4 34.b3 h5 This position is a draw, 15.h1 g4 Reinfeld commented that had Rubinow seen what was coming he would have played 15...Bxd4 and white has a perpetual. He claimed that Rubinow felt he deserved more than a draw and that while Rubinow's positional judgment was correct, he played poorly tactically. Reinfeld was of the opinion that had Rubinow taken the trouble to consolidate his position and secure it from attack, he would have undoubtedly been able to utilize his positional advantage. 15...xd4 and white does have to take the perpetual. 16.f6+ h6 17.h4+ etc. 16.df5+ In spite of Reinfeld's twaddle, THIS position is equal IF black finds the correct move... which he does not. gxf5 The tactical error of which Reinfeld spoke; it loses the game. It should be mentioned that even at this early stage Rubinow was in time pressure. 16...xf5 The only move. 17.exf5 Black is on a tightrope...again he must find the only move that does not lose. f6 18.fxg6 fxg6 19.d5 xd5 No other move is satisfactory. Whether white exchanges Qs or not, the chances are equal. 17.exf5 h8 18.xf7 Very pretty says Reinfeld, but very bad says Stockfish! 18.ae1 White has a massive advantage. For instance... d4 19.f6 xb2 20.c3 xc3 21.c2 h6 22.e4 with a winning attack. 18...b6 After this gaffe there is no salvaging the game. 18...f2 Pure wizardry! It saves the game! 19.xf2 19.xg4 xe7 20.xf2 xf7 ...and black has won a piece and much more than likely will win the game. 19...xf2+ 20.g1 e4 Now it's white's turn to save the game and there is only one way it can be done. 21.g6 b6+ 22.h1 f2+ 23.g1 e4+ 24.h1 black has to take the draw. 19.xg4 xf7 He overlooks the mate, but it doesn't matter because the game is now beyond hope. 19...h6 20.h5 e3 21.g8 and black has little choice but to play xg8 22.xg8 g5 22...xg8 23.ae1 23.xg5 xg5 24.e6 with a won ending. 20.g8# A fascinating game. 1–0

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