Polish grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein was one of the strongest players never to win the world title. Up to 1914 he seemed unstoppable, but then the Cuban genius Capablanca burst on to the scene and after the first world war Rubinstein was a changed man. In Chess and Chessmasters (Hardinge Simpole), Gideon Stahlberg wrote: ‘A latent disease of the mind was slowly weakening the titan’s creative powers and sapping his ability … but one could still recognise that he was a great master; his play was almost more subtle than before and his art more remarkable’.
It was seen as a sign of his mental distraction that he seemed constantly disturbed by imaginary flies, though it has been postulated that this could have been caused by a condition called posterior vitreous detachment, which puts black floaters in the field of vision.
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