In chess history there are only a few individuals that stand out really among the rest, Akiba Rubinstein, winner at Hastings in 1922/23 is one of these player. He was scheduled to play a match with Emanuel Lasker for the World Chess Championship in 1914, but it was cancelled because of the lack of fundraising success and the outbreak of World War I.

Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (born 1880 – died March 1961) was a Polish chess Grandmaster at the beginning of the 20th century. Rubinstein was Jewish and his family planned for him to become a rabbi. However, in 1903, after finishing fifth in a tournament in Kiev, Rubinstein decided to abandon his rabbinical studies and devote himself entirely to chess. Between 1907 and 1914, Rubinstein established himself as one of the top leading players in the world.

In 1912, Rubinstein won five chess tournaments in a row in the same year: San Sebastián (ahead of joint Nimzowitsch and Spielmann in a very strong field), Bad Pistyan (Piešťany), Breslau (DSB Congress) shared with Oldřich Duras, Vilnius (All-Russian Masters), and Warsaw (City Championship 1911/12) at the beginning of this incredible consecutive string! A growing demand for there to be a match between Rubinstein and Lasker emerged.

But at St. Petersburg 1914, Rubinstein faced a poor result. The top five played a final and are reported to be given virtually the title of “Grandmaster” (not to mix with the FIDE titles). Rubinstein surprisingly did not qualify for that final (with Lasker, Capablanaca, Alekhine, Marshall and Tarrasch).

At the time when it was common for the reigning world champion to handpick his challengers, Rubinstein was never given a chance to play Lasker for the world chess championship because he was unable to raise enough money to meet Lasker's financial demands. Unfortunately due that bad result at St. Petersburg, the beginning of Rubinstein’s deep psychological problems and the rise of the Cuban chess star Capablanca combined with the break out of World War I was the beginning of the end for Rubinstein title aspirations.

After 1932, Rubinstein who was awarded the official grandmaster title at its inauguration in 1950, never competed in chess tournaments again, all though he was invited to do so. Shortly after his retirement from chess, Akiba checked into a psychiatric clinic. The final years of his life he spent in Belgium with his family until his death in 1961.

Historical Ratings from Chessmetrics are placing Rubinstein between mid-1912 and mid-1914 as world no. 1

(Source: Wikipedia)

Svetozar Gligorić (*1923 - 2012) achieved an all-time record of five tournament wins (alone or shared) at Hastings Chess Congresses between 1950/51 and 1962/63

László Szabó (1917 - 1998), born in Budapest, he was tutored by Géza Maróczy, both becoming international grandmaster of chess in 1950, at its title inauguration by FIDE, as first hungarian chess players ever.

Szabó learned to play the game at the age of six, at age of 14 he began to take part in chess tournaments, at 17 he became a National Master and he became at 18 Champion of Hungary. Szabó was nine times national Hungarian Champion between 1935 and 1967/68.

Szabó was a three times consecutive Candidate during the 1950s, at Budapest in 1950, at Zürich / Neuhausen in 1953 and equal third at Amsterdam in 1956 (with the four soviet players Spassky, Petrosian, Bronstein, Geller; behind runner-up Keres and winner Smyslov).

Szabó represented Hungary at 11 Chess Olympiads, playing first board on five occasions and delivering many medal-winning performances, plus the unofficial Chess Olympiad at Munich in 1936, winning Gold both for Hungary as team and individual board prize. He also participated seven times in the European Team Championships.

He won top-class tournaments from the mid-1930s into the mid-1970s, a stretch of 40 years, winning Hastings four times and maintaining the longest winning span at Hastings, incredible thirty-five years (!) from 1938/39 to 1973/74.

László Szabó burst onto the international chess scene in 1935, at the age of 18, winning his first Hungarian Championships, an international tournament in Tatatóváros 1935, and subsequently was selected to represent his country at the 1935 Warsaw Olympiad.

His finest results are the mentioned four Hastings Congresses 1938/39, 1947/48, 1949/50 (all three outright), 1973/74 (shared, best on tie-break), and amongst others Vienna (Schlechter Memorial) 1947 outright, Budapest 1948 (clear first with 1.5 points ahead of Gligoric), Venice 1949 (clear first ahead of the european elite players Rossolimo, Prins, Gligoric, Golombek, Barcza, Foltys, Paoli, Kottnauer, Tartakower, etc.), Santa Fé 1960 (best on tie-break, joint with Taimanov, ahead of Gligoric, Korchnoi, 8 players), Zagreb 1964 outright, (again) in Budapest 1965 (with Taimanov and Polugaevsky). More was to come:

Szabo also won in the mid-1970s days at Sarajevo, Bosna in 1972 (clear first ahead of Tigran Petrosian!, followed by Paul Keres, Vlastimil Hort, and Vlastimil Jansa as joint third), a prominent win at age of 55, at Hilversum, 2nd AVRO in 1973 (shared with Efim Geller, ahead of Ljubojevic, Andersson, Sax, Ivkov, Polugaevsky, and Timman, eight players in a double round robin), another big win,

then as already listed, László Szabó's fourth and last Hastings tournament victory in 1973/74 (shared, as best on tie-break), remember, his first Hastings triumph happened in 1938/39,

at Dortmund in 1974 (joint with Ciocâltea in a less strong field with several minor players), at Helsinki in 1975 (joint winner with Hort and Westerinen), at Costa Brava in Sant Feliu de Guixols in 1975 (shared, as best on tie-break), at Kapfenberg in 1976 (ahead of Stean).

He won the strong Wageningen Zonal 1957 unbeaten (ahead of 2. F. Olafsson, 3./4. Larsen, Donner, 5. Uhlmann, 6./7. Trifunovic, Stahlberg, 8. Teschner, 9. Ivkov, etc., 18 players).

Szabó was sole second at Beverwijk (Hoogovens) in 1966, half a point behind Polugaevksy.

He was also clear second in the Interzonal at Saltsjöbaden (Stockholm, Sweden) in 1948 with 20 participants, László Szabó held the lead during rounds 7-17, and co-leading after the penultimate round, but in the last round he unexpectedly lost to Erik Lundin who nevertheless placed clear last of the Interzonal, whereas eventual winner David Bronstein defeated Savielly Tartakower, thus Bronstein won the tournament, unbeaten one point ahead of Szabó. The only game Erik Lundin (IM 1950 and Honorary GM 1983) won at all in Saltsjöbaden's Interzonal in 1948, stopped Szabó from co-winning with Bronstein. Of course both players advanced to the following Candidate’s tournament at Budapest in 1950, finally decided in a play-off match between Boleslavsky and Bronstein, the latter winning again and becoming Challenger of Champion Mikhail Botvinnik in 1951, this World Chess Championship was tied 12:12, the reigning king retaining the title (no play-off).

Szabó was already active at highest level before WW II, his first win at Hastings in 1938/39 was ahead of Max Euwe, Salo Landau and Vasja Pirc, his fourth win at Hastings in 1973/74, as shared first with the best tie-break score (co-winners were Mikhail Tal, Jan Timman and Gennadi Kuzmin; this guy was reigning runner-up at the super strong USSR Championship in 1973, together with – alphabetically – Karpov, Korchnoi, Petrosian, and Polugaevsky).

Szabó was the leading player in Hungary for a quarter of a century (eventually being succeeded by Lajos Portisch in the early to mid 1960s), always a lively player at chess events, his style full of underappreciated brilliance though his performance sometimes erratic, Szabó was a longtime player in the range of the top twenty to top ten in the world, and at the peak of his powers best-ranked by chessmetrics (historical ELO) on position 6 in the 1940s.

His family donated Szabó's entire chess library and his papers to the Cleveland Public Library John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection. The John G. White Collection of Chess and Checkers is the largest chess library in the world.

I watched Szabó at the international Max Blau Memorial at Bern in 1987 (Campora and Geller won, ahead of swiss student Giancarlo Franzoni, making his final IM norm, followed by Cebalo, Unzicker, young IM Danny King, today esteemed presenter, and septuagenarian Szabó on seventh place, twelve players in a cozy little generation mix).

Salomon Flohr (*1908 - 1983), four times winner at Hastings, consecutively in 1931/32, 1932/33, 1933/34, and 1934/35 shared with Max Euwe and George Alan Thomas (ahead of Capablanca, Lilienthal, and Botvinnik). In the 1930s, Salo Flohr was regarded as one of the strongest players and a possible contender for the title, retrospective chessmetrics peak-ranked him as second best of the World and regular top-ten troughout the 1930s (this picture here shows Salo Flohr much later at Amsterdam in 1963)

Savielly Tartakower (*1887 - 1956), leading Polish and French chess player, leading chess journalist and author of the 1920s and 1930s whose books are popular still today.

Avant-garde of the "Hypermodern School of chess theory", which came to prominence in the 1920s, thanks to him, Aron Nimzowitsch, Richard Réti, Gyula Breyer, or Ernst Grünfeld.

Tartakower won four times at Hastings between 1924/25 (shared with Géza Maróczy) and 1945/46. Tartakower is unforgotten for his sharp wit and aphorisms, eg: "No game was ever won by resigning"

Contestants at the Hastings 1895 International Chess Congress. Standing: Albin, Schlechter, Janowski, Marco, Blackburne, Maróczy, Schiffers, Gunsberg, Burn, Tinsley. Seated: Vergani, Steinitz, Chigorin, Lasker, Pillsbury, Tarrasch, Mieses, Teichmann. Not present: von Bardeleben, Mason, Tinsley, Walbrodt

Alexander Alekhine (*1892 - 1946) takes on 28 opponents in Paris, blindfold. Alekhine won the Summer Congress at Hastings in 1922, and the Christmas Congresses in 1925/26 shared with Milan Vidmar, and 1936/37 outright

Frank Marshall (*1877-1944), shared winner at the ninth Hasting Winter Christmas Congress in 1928/29, tied for 1st-3rd, with Belgian Edgard Colle and Hungarian Sándor Takács. Photo courtesy of Marshall Chess Club

Reuben Fine (*1914 - 1993), winner at Hastings in 1935/36 (ahead of Salo Flohr as clear second and Savielly Tartakower). He was an American chess grandmaster, psychologist, university professor, and author of many books on both chess and psychology. He was one of the strongest chess players in the world from the late 1930s into the early 1950s and retrospective no. 1 of the World in historical ELO by chessmetrics.

After Alexander Alekhine’s death, Reuben Fine was offered as one of six players an invitation to the subsequent quadruple World Championship tournament in 1948, but Fine declined to participate! He retired from chess a few years later in order to pursue a career in psychology.

In his foreshortened career, Fine played tournament games against five world champions. He had overall plus scores against Emanuel Lasker, Alexander Alekhine, and Mikhail Botvinnik, and even records against Jose Raul Capablanca and Max Euwe.

Samuel Reshevsky (*1911 - 1992), chess prodigy, for longtime a leading American grandmaster, playing still at very high level into old age. Reshevsky never became a truly professional chess player, he was an accountant by profession, and a well-regarded chess writer. Reshevsky won at Hastings in 1937/38 as clear first ahead 2nd/3rd Conel Hugh Alexander and Paul Keres, followed by 4th/5th Reuben Fine and Salo Flohr (this picture shows Samuel Reshevsky thirty years later during the Candidate match against Viktor Korchnoi at Amsterdam in 1968)

Mikhail Botvinnik (*1911 - 1995), "Patriarch of the Soviet Chess School". He won finally at Hastings Christmas Congresses in 1960/61 and 1966/67

Leonid Stein, joint winner at Hastings in 1967/68. This picture shows him together with then twenty years young Anatoly Karpov, both tied for first place at the super-strong - and seldom played - international Alekhine Memorial at Moscow in 1971 (for Karpov, Junior World Chess Champion 1969, this was his first big adult success). Stein won three USSR Chess Championships in the 1960s (1963, 1965, and 1966), and was among the world's top ten players during that era. He was a highly intuitive, natural player. Stein was considered to be a brilliant attacking genius, emerging situations of disrupted material and strategic balance.

Stein twice qualified in an Interzonal tournament for the next stage as a Candidate but was ruled out the right to advance, because of a FIDE policy then in force which limited the players from any one country to three (obviously only the USSR was concerned), keeping Stein from trying his chances in the fight for the World Championship.

After winning with Tigran Petrosian the prestigious periodical tournament at Las Palmas 1973, and just before the Petropolis Interzonal 1973 started, Leonid Stein passed away abruptly of a heart attack, aged only 38 years. He will be remembered for his attacking mastery. The chess world will never forget him.

Anatoly Karpov, born in 1951, World Chess Champion from 1975 to 1985 (and after the Kasparov / Short schism in 1993 again FIDE World Champion until 1999). The perfect soviet-russian "Role Model" won Hastings at his first and only participation in 1971/72, together with Viktor Korchnoi

Viktor Korchnoi, Vice World Chess Champion from 1975 (de facto) to 1984/85, twice winner at Hastings at his first participation in 1955/56 (shared with Fridrik Olafsson), earning the GM title, and second participation in 1971/72 (shared with Anatoly Karpov). Korchnoi both times was first on tie-break. This picture shows Viktor Lvovich as guest of honour and commentator at the London Chess Classic in December 2011. Photo: ChessBase

Boris Spassky, World Chess Champion from 1969 to 1972, winner at Hastings in 1965/66 (shared with Wolfgang Uhlmann)

Mikhail Tal, the Wizard from Riga, World Chess Champion from 1960 to 1961, twice-winner at Hastings in 1963/64, and in 1973/74 (shared with László Szabó, Jan Timman and Gennadi Kuzmin)

Vasily Smyslov, World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958, twice-winner at Hastings in 1954/55 (shared with Paul Keres), and in 1968/69

David Bronstein is twice-winner at Hastings in 1953/54 (shared with Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, an Irish-born British cryptanalyst and chess player, who worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ, the British intelligence and security agency for over twenty years), and in 1975/76 (shared with Vlastimil Hort and Wolfgang Uhlmann). Photo: Rochade Kuppenheim

A true chess magician and poet, Bronstein is regarded as one of most brilliant attackers and chess enthusiasts and inventors, always passionate about the game and its beauty. His legacy is rich, full of pure chess gems.

Bronstein, Vice World Chess Champion from 1951 to 1954, was an energetic player, his creative and unexpected ideas on the board presented a stark contrast to the "chess as science" trend pushed by Botvinnik, the patriarch of the Soviet chess school. And ever the romantic at the board, Bronstein refused to play conservatively.

He tied the World Championship title match against Botvinnik in 1951 with 12:12 each, the latter remaining the crown on a FIDE clause advocated by Botvinnik, stipulating that the reigning world champion has draw odds without any form of a play-off or tie-break decision.

By game 22, Bronstein led by a point and needed just one point from the last two games in order to unseat the champion. For years rumors persisted about why he lost the fateful 23rd game. Some say Soviet authorities pressured him to lose in order to keep Botvinnik, a favorite of the Communist Party leadership, on the throne.

Bronstein has controversially hinted that there was government pressure on him to lose the match. In a 1993 interview he explained that "There was no direct pressure... but... there was the psychological pressure of the environment..." in part caused by his father's "several years in prison" and what he labelled "the marked preference for the institutional Botvinnik." Bronstein concluded that "it seemed to me that winning could seriously harm me, which does not mean that I deliberately lost."

(Source: Chessgames, Chessbase, and Wikipedia)

Paul Keres, thrice-winner at Hastings Christmas Congresses in 1954/55 (shared with Smyslov), in 1957/58 and in 1964/65 outright, and took Beverwijk in 1964 (co-winner Iivo Nei).

Keres narrowly missed a chance at a world championship match on multiple occasions. He won the 1938 AVRO tournament (on tie-break over Reuben Fine, ahead of Botvinnik, Euwe, Reshevsky, Alekhine, Capablanca, and Flohr) which led to negotiations for a title match against champion Alexander Alekhine, but the match never took place due to World War II. After the war Keres was runner-up in the Candidates' Tournament on four consecutive occasions! That's why he was sometimes nicknamed "Paul the Second", "Eternal Second" and "The Crown Prince of Chess". Keres, along with Viktor Korchnoi and Alexander Beliavsky, defeated nine undisputed world chess champions — more than anyone else in history.

Keres won top-class tournaments from the mid-1930s into the mid-1970s, a span of 40 years.

His last major tournament win was Tallinn 1975, ahead of joint Spassky and Fridrik Olafsson, then joint Hort and Bronstein, and Taimanov, just a few months before he died of a heart attack in Helsinki, Finland, at the age of 59 (it is commonly reported that he died on the same date in Vancouver, Canada). His death occurred while returning to his native Estonia from a tournament in Vancouver, which he had won.

The Paul Keres Memorial Tournaments have been held annually mainly in Vancouver and Tallinn ever since.

Over 100,000 people were in attendance at his state funeral in Tallinn, Estonia, where the leaders of Estonia were on guard of honour, and FIDE President Max Euwe, his old friend and rival, was also present.

Paul Keres was the first person best known for playing chess and whose portrait is on a banknote. The five kroons (5 krooni) Estonian banknote bore his face (kroons are replaced by the euro since 2011).

A statue honouring him can be found on Tõnismägi in Tallinn, and a number of chess clubs and festivals are named after him.

In the year 2000, Keres was elected the Estonian Sportsman of the Century (Source: Wikipedia)