MARK RUBERY CHESS

Ossip Bernstein (1882-1962) born in the Ukraine was one of the few world-class players of his time to have a career outside chess. As a lawyer he became quite successful although the turbulence of the times did not make it easy for him. In 1917 he lost his fortune during the Russian Revolution. He then settled in Paris only to see his assets disappear during the financial crash of 1929 and after building up his practice again he had to flee to Spain when France fell to Germany in 1940. His best years as a chess player were from 1905-1914 notably sharing first prize with Rubinstein at Ostend 1907 (he was to take part in that same event 50 years later). From 1914-1932 he played no serious chess thus it was quite remarkable that in 1933 he was able to draw a match against the then world champion Alexander Alekhine.

There is a famous anecdote that at the 1934 Zurich tournament that on losing a winning position against the Swiss player Gygli he drew up a quasi-legal document claiming that he was a chess idiot and got Emanual Lasker to endorse it.

At the age of 72 Bernstein won the brilliancy prize in the following game. Bernstein,Ossip - Najdorf,Miguel [E61] Montevideo (16), 1954 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.e4 e5 5.Nf3 g6 6.dxe5 dxe5 7.Be2 c6 8.0–0 Qc7 9.h3 Nc5 10.Qc2 Nh5 11.Re1 Ne6 12.Be3 Be7 13.Rad1 0–0 14.Bf1 Nhg7 15.a3 f5 16.b4 f4 17.Bc1 Bf6 18.c5 g5 19.Bc4 Kh8 20.Bb2 h5 21.Nd5 cxd5 22.exd5 Nd4 23.Nxd4 exd4 24.d6 Qd7 25.Rxd4 f3 26.Rde4 Qf5 27.g4 hxg4 28.hxg4 Qg6 29.Re8! Bf5 (29…Qxc2 30 Rxf8+ Kh7 31 Bg8+ Kh6 32 Rxf6+) 30.Rxa8 Rxa8 31.gxf5 Qh5 32.Re4 Qh3 33.Bf1 Qxf5 34.Rh4+ gxh4 35.Qxf5 Nxf5 36.Bxf6+ Kg8 37.d7 1–0 In 1940 John Selman was to publish a brilliant study with a unique idea but due to the advent of World War 2 this did not come to pass. A few years later the Russian composer Vladimir Korolkov published an extended version of Selman’s study without even being aware of its existence. Such coincidences are not uncommon when two independent minds chance upon the same theme- for example, on perhaps a more profound level, the theory of Evolution came independently to both Darwin and Wallace. Here is Selman’s original concept.

WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN