Rotlewi v Rubinstein, Łódź 1907: Rubinstein's Immortal

Akiba Rubinstein played this game against Georg Rotlewi in Łódź on 26 December 1907. Hans Kmoch named it "Rubinstein's Immortal Game", and Garry Kasparov has called it Rubinstein's most famous creation. White's king is on h1, Rubinstein's bishops on b7 and b6 bear down on it, and he gives up his queen and a rook to clear their way.

Black to move after 22.g3. Rubinstein's next two moves are sacrifices.

The whole game

Rotlewi v Rubinstein, Łódź 1907. Step through all 25 moves; White resigned.

What Stockfish makes of it

We had Stockfish check every move.

10.Qd2 and 11.Bd3: White loses time

White to move after 10...Qe7. Stockfish prefers 11.cxd5.

Savielly Tartakower criticised 10.Qd2 as a loss of time and preferred 10.Qc2, saying the queen would soon have to find a better square; it went to e2 four moves later. Stockfish rates 10.Qd2 as only a small inaccuracy. The move after it mattered more: 11.Bd3 let Black take on c4 and gain time on the bishop, and Stockfish rates Black better by half a pawn afterwards, where 11.cxd5 would have kept White slightly ahead.

17.f4 and 19.e5: pushing the pawns

17.f4 Bc7 18.e4 Rac8 19.e5 Bb6+: White's pawns advance, and Black's bishop reaches b6 with check.

17.f4 was a mistake: Stockfish prefers 17.Rfd1, keeping Black's advantage to about half a pawn instead of nearly one and a half. 19.e5 was worse. 19.Rf3 or 19.Kh1 would have kept Black's advantage to about two pawns; after 19.e5 it is nearly four.

22...Rxc3!!: the first sacrifice

22...Rxc3!! 23.gxh4 Rd2!! 24.Qxd2 Bxe4+ 25.Qg2 Rh3: mate on h2 can't be stopped.

Rubinstein leaves his queen on h4 to be taken and gives up a rook on c3 to remove White's knight. It was the strongest move: Stockfish rates Black nearly seven pawns better after it, with the next best, 22...Qe7, about four. Kmoch gave it three exclamation marks.

White's best was 23.Bxb7, and Black would still have been winning by more than five pawns. Taking the queen with 23.gxh4 allows a forced mate.

23...Rd2!!: the only move

After 23.gxh4, 23...Rd2 is the only move that wins. It attacks White's queen and takes it away from e4: if the queen takes the rook, the bishop on e4 falls with check. Stockfish finds a forced mate after 23...Rd2. Every other move throws the win away: the next best, 23...Re3, only leaves the position level, and 23...Bxe4+ leaves White two pawns better.

After 24.Qxd2 Bxe4+ 25.Qg2 Rh3, Black is a queen and a rook down for two minor pieces, but mate on h2 can't be stopped, and Rotlewi resigned.

How we checked

The moves are from Wikipedia's page on the game. We replayed every one with python-chess: all are legal.
The engine: Stockfish 16.1 checked every move at depth 22, and the key moments again at depth 24 to 26. "A pawn better" is Stockfish's measure of the position, not a count of material.
The history and the named opinions (Kmoch, Kasparov, Tartakower) are from the Wikipedia article.

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