Rubinstein's immortal chess game

[jts]

A word about Rubinstein:  His father was a Jewish rabbi and his father before him was a Jewish rabbi and Rubinstein was expected to follow family tradition and become a Jewish rabbi. But somewhere along the line Rubinstein discovered chess and there was no remedy and instead of becoming a rabbi he became a chess player. Rubinstein was a follower of the theory of Steinitz and he applied it better than Steinitz and in his hands chess became almost an art form. Rubinstein is known as the artist of the chessboard. Rubinstein's philosophy of chess was that chess is governed by laws of strategy that will never fail him, tho he might fail them. He believed that his job as chess player was to humbly obey these laws of strategy. According to Nimzovich, Rubinstein played 'every day' moves that have more depth to them than first appears.

Grandmaster Richard Reti writes as follows:

Whilst in all of Schlechter’s beautiful games there is to be found playful delight comparable to the joyful dance, and whilst with Lasker a dramatic struggle captivates the onlooker, with Rubinstein all is refined tranquility; for with him in building up his game the position given to every piece is the necessary one. It is not matter of a fight for him, but the working out of a victory, and so his games create the impression of a great structure from which not one stone dare be shifted.

Rubinstein has been described as the best rook and pawn endgame player of all time. His skill in the endgame was so great that 3 commentators on one of his performances agreed that if he had done this 300 years earlier he would have been burned at stake for practising witchcraft.

Rubinstein is mostly known as a strategic player but he was good at tactics too, as this game illustrates.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1119679      -- from chessgames

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotlewi_versus_Rubinstein         -- from wiki

http://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/aa07l15.htm          -- the game in slow motion, every move explained

http://www.ajschess.com/lifemasteraj/rotle-rubin_1.html    -- AJ thinks this is the 9th best chess game ever played, much annotation

You ask:  what the #$% does a chess game have to do with Objectivist aesthetics? I dunno. Maybe nothing. That's one of the questions that can be discussed in this thread. Does this chess game and do other chess games qualify as "selective recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical values"? Damned if I know.

Former world chess champion Botvinnik wrote an article about is chess merely a game, is it a science, is it an art. He defined his terms from some communist source (because he was a good communist in the USSR) and he came to the conclusions: 1. Chess is always a game.  2. Chess is not a science but is scientific. 3. Chess sometimes becomes an art.   Or, chess is a scientific game that sometimes becomes an art.

Botvinnik explained that some subjects have a scientific aspect and an artistic aspect. He gave the example of sound. We have the science of sound, acoustics. We have the art of sound, music. According to Botvinnik, the same applies to thought. We have the science of thought, logic. We have the art of thought, chess.

 

Lasker in his "Manual of Chess" devoted a chapter to the aesthetic effect in chess and he explains it. 

I present the Rubinstein Immortal Game as a concrete study piece under Objectivist aesthetics. Concrete so we are not talking about floating abstractions.

 

[BaalChatzaf]

9 minutes ago, jts said:

A word about Rubinstein:  His father was a Jewish rabbi and his father before him was a Jewish rabbi and Rubinstein was expected to follow family tradition and become a Jewish rabbi. But somewhere along the line Rubinstein discovered chess and there was no remedy and instead of becoming a rabbi he became a chess player.

Rubenstein "went astray"   in a totally Jewish manner.  My son "the Rabbi"  becomes instead My son the Mathematician,  My son the Violinist,  My son the Chess Player  etc. etc.  And so it goes.