The Symmetrical Immortal, Part 1

"Symmetry" means that two halves of something look exactly alike - they mirror each other. In life, they say that symmetry is beautiful. But in chess, usually a symmetrical position is pretty boring. That's because both side's pieces and pawns look exactly alike, so neither side has any weaknesses to attack or any way to make a plan.

Here is an example of a symmetrical chess position:

This is from a game I played a long time ago. You can see that the two sides mirror each other. Imagine that the black position is the sky, and the white position is a lake, reflecting it back. It's actually a pretty boring position, because neither side has any plan of action. I agreed to a draw with my opponent here. Truth is, we just didn't feel like playing chess...

In the game I am going to show you the players reached a nearly symmetrical position after the opening. I said "nearly symmetrical" because there were two slight differences; and the player who had black, Akiba Rubinstein, used those slight differences in the sides' positions to start a sparkling attack.

Rubinstein is considered to be one of the best players never to have become world champion. He was famous for his very classical and pure style of play. He did not try fancy attacks or tactics, unless the position called for them. He never bluffed his opponent - if he sacrificed a piece, you knew it was correct. He was also very famous for his amazing endgame play.

 

So after fifteen moves, this was the position that the players reached:

It looks pretty symmetrical. Can you spot the difference in the two sides' positions?

That's right, the black rook is already developed on d8, while White's rook is still on f1.

There is another difference - it is Black's move! Normally, if there is a symmetrical position, it should be White's move, since White starts off the game.

So this means that White has lost two tempi, by playing mistaken moves. One tempo was lost by moving the bishop first to d3, and then to c4; the other tempo was lost by moving the queen to d2 and then e2.

But could such a tiny difference really lead to an attack for Black? Rubinstein shows that it can!

The position isn't symmetrical anymore. White pushed his central pawns, while Black calmly developed his pieces. Black's rooks are now ideally placed on the two open files, and his bishops are aimed at White's kingside. But his knight is threatened. How did Rubinstein begin his attack? Check out Part 2 for the rest of the game...