The Rubinstein-Polgar connection!

Smyslov once called Polgar "Tal with a skirt!"- and Rubinstein was a positional master of the highest caliber, and also a rook endgame player of the highest order....once Tarrasch said: "Rubinstein is a rook endgame started by the Gods a long time ago...."

So, what do they have in common? In this article, just one move......Qb8!

Bronstein stated that all Masters steal from each other, but do not like to admit it. This is an unrefutable truth!

But there is great delight, at least for me, in finding common ideas, moves, maneuvers or sacrificial themes that span generations! It gives me aesthetic pleasure, much like watching a great pianist do a phrase, or a painter do a graceful brush-stroke!

Let us go in chronological order, shall we?

The first game is Janowki-Rubinstein, from Karslbad 1907, a tournament that Rubinstein won.

It is a positional masterpiece which has a sequence of themes....

Now, let us see Judit Polgar effecting a similar idea!

Judit Polgar in 1994

The following game, played 87 years after the Rubinstein game, has some things in common with its ancestor!

First, White has placed his central pawns on white squares, therefore weakening his black-square complex. So Black is maneuvering on the black squares, as in the Rubinstein game.

Second of all- with the same naneuvre, Qb8-Qa7, Black succeeds in activating her Queen!

Let us take a look!

Also in 1994, Polgar scored another win against Alexei Shirov....