Rubinstein's Immortal

Rubinstein's Immortal is the standard name for this game from the 1907 tournament in Lodz, then part of the Russian Empire and formally billed as the 5th Russian Chess Championship. Georg Rotlewi had White and was considered one of the event's stronger players; Akiba Rubinstein, twenty-five and already climbing towards the world's elite, won the tournament outright and left this game as its calling card. The nickname is usually credited to the Austrian writer Hans Kmoch, and Garry Kasparov later called it Rubinstein's most famous creation in his survey of the pre-war champions.

The combination begins with 21...Qh4, but the real shock is 22...Rxc3, a rook sacrifice that rips open White's kingside cover. White grabs the queen with 23.gxh4, only to meet 23...Rd2, offering the second rook. Rotlewi's queen and both rooks are left unable to stop the mating net that follows 24...Bxe4+ and 25...Rh3, and he resigned rather than let the finish be played out on the board.

The exact December date usually attached to the game rests on secondary sources rather than a primary tournament bulletin, and Rotlewi's own name appears transliterated two ways across the literature (Georg and Gersz), but the movetext and result are not in dispute.