Akiba Rubinstein
Rubinstein's best period was from 1907 to 1912. It began with his win at Karlovy Vary in 1907, and a shared win at St. Petersburg in the same year. It closed in a string of wins in 1912. He won five consecutive major tournaments that year: San Sebastian, Piešťany, Breslau (the German championship), Warsaw and Vilnius (although none of these events included Lasker or Capablanca).p79 Some believe that he was better than World Champion Emanuel Lasker at this time. Ratings from Chessmetrics support this conclusion, placing him as world #1 between mid 1912 and mid 1914. Others believe he was not quite so strong as Lasker, and was eclipsed by José Raúl Capablanca after 1911.