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Gelfand holds on to win
Boris Gelfand of Israel secured victory in the Rubinstein Memorial tournament as he drew his final round game with Tomasz Markowski. In actual fact, his unshared tournament victory was confirmed only after his main rivals van Wely and Shirov had quit their futile winning attempts in the other two main games of the final round. All last round games were drawn.
This victory marks the returning of form for the Israelite. Gelfand had been a regular over-2700 player for many years, but had not produced anything top class for a while now.
Loek van Wely can also count this tournament as one of his best results ever. Only the one crucial loss against his co-second place winner Alexei Shirov denied him of tournament victory.
Round 9 (comments based on the gamescores from the official site)
Gelfand - Krasenkow ˝-˝
Symmetrical English opening. Rubinstein himself played this in his days, and it is rather fitting that this opening featured in the final game of the tournament winner. Gelfand took no risks and as Krasenkow had nothing to prove, the draw was soon agreed.
van Wely - Almasi ˝-˝
Slav defence. The longest game of the tournament, 107 moves. Black won material, but white had the bishop pair. Perhaps black's 43...b4 was not the right way to proceed, as van Wely was soon on top. Instead 43...c5 looked interesting. Black had to give his Knight for white's passed pawn, but the diminished material allowed him to hold the draw.
Movsesian - Shirov ˝-˝
A Sicilian defence. Neither player could make much progress and the draw was agreed on move 32.
Ivanchuk - Markowski ˝-˝
A Sicilian defence. 7 moves.
Fedorov - Svidler ˝-˝
Pirc defence. Not much defending required from Svidler, however - 15 moves and back to the drawing board for these two disappointed GM's.
Final standings
Gelfand 6˝
Shirov 6
van Wely
Ivanchuk 5
Krasenkow
Almasi 4
Movsesian
Markowski
Svidler 3˝
Fedorov 1
All games in PGN
Live games at: http://rubinstein.netgate.com.pl/. Follow the ON-LINE link.
Round 8 (comments based on the gamescores from the official site)
Shirov - van Wely
A fashionable variation of the Sicilian defence. Shirov sacrificed a piece and van Wely could not find a way out from the complications. The Dutchman resigned on move 33. Perhaps 25..Qxc2+ had been worth a try?
Markowski - Gelfand ˝-˝
Markowski played his favourite 1.g3 opening and had a comfortable position throughout the game. Gelfand was down a pawn in the opposite colored bishops ending, but did not seem to be losing at any stage.
Almasi - Ivanchuk 0-1
A Sicilian defence. Almasi played passively and Ivanchuk edged into a better endgame with one pawn up. Almasi (possibly) resigned on move 42.
Krasenkow - Fedorov 1-0
A predictable result. A King's Indian defence turned into another nightmare for Fedorov. Krasenkow just walked through black's defences.
Svidler - Movsesian ˝-˝
Another Sicilian. A short draw in a position with all to play for.
Round 1
Shirov - Svidler ˝-˝
Almasi - Movsesian 1-0
Markowski - Van Wely ˝-˝
Krasenkov - Ivanchuk ˝-˝
Fedorov - Gelfand 0-1
Round 2
Shirov - Almasi ˝-˝
Movsesian - Markowski 0-1
Van Wely - Krasenkov 1-0
Ivanchuk - Fedorov 1-0
Svidler - Gelfand 0-1
Round 3
Markowski - Shirov 0-1
Almasi - Svidler 0-1
Krasenkov - Movsesian 0-1
Fedorov - Van Wely 0-1
Gelfand - Ivanchuk ˝-˝
Round 4
Shirov - Krasenkov 1-0
Almasi - Markowski ˝-˝
Movsesian - Fedorov 1-0
Van Wely - Gelfand ˝-˝
Svidler - Ivanchuk ˝-˝
Round 5
Fedorov - Shirov 0-1
Krasenkov - Almasi 1-0
Markowski - Svidler ˝-˝
Gelfand - Movsesian 1-0
Ivanchuk - Van Wely 0-1
Round 6
Shirov - Gelfand 0-1
Almasi - Fedorov 1-0
Markowski - Krasenkov 0-1
Movsesian - Ivanchuk ˝-˝
Svidler - Van Wely 0-1
Round 7
Gelfand - Almasi ˝-˝
van Wely - Movsesian ˝-˝
Ivanchuk - Shirov ˝-˝
Krasenkow - Svidler 1-0
Fedorov - Markowski ˝-˝
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Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Rubinstein was probably the greatest Polish chess player in history. Born in 1882 in Stawisk in the then Russian empire, Rubinstein learned the game of chess allegedly at the age of 16. He was soon absorbed by the game, and gave up his rabbinical studies for it.
Rubinstein won a number of major tournaments in the end of the first decade of the 20th century and in the first years of the second. One of his major achievements was having an equal lifetime score against the invincible Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca.
Despite the fact that Rubinstein probably was the world's number two, if not number one in his hayday, he never got the chance to play a world championship match against Emanuel Lasker. This was mostly due to Lasker only choosing to play those challengers who could raise enough money for the title fight prize.
Despite his failing mental health, Rubinstein continued to play till the early 1930's and represented Poland with success in team world championships. He died in 1961.
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