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Reuben Fine A Comprehensive Record of an American Chess Career, 1929-1951 Reviewed by David Surratt
A thriving chess life that helped nurture World Championship-caliber players, who consistently placed well in international competitions and repeatedly won gold at the Chess Olympiad. No, I'm not referring to the former USSR, but rather the USA of the 1930s. This was a golden era of chess in the US, when names like Sammy Reshevsky, Arthur Dake, Isaac Kashdan, Herman Steiner, Fred Reinfeld, and others excited the imaginations of chessplayers all over the country. None shone brighter than Reuben Fine. While this book does not purport to be a biography of Fine's, it does begin with a short (six page) summary of his life and chess career. For the uninitiated, a few brief highlights:
While we will never know what would have been if Fine had had the better tiebreaks, we do know what happened to him next. Within four years he had effectively become a chess amateur, and by 1951 played his last tournament. He left competitive chess at the chessically tender age of 36, at or near the peak of his powers, when he was still among the strongest players in the world. Meanwhile he had taken up a highly successful 2nd career in psychoanalysis. He authored the standard work on the subject, A History of Psychoanalysis (1979) and helped to organize the National Psychological Center for Psychoanalytical Training, supervising the training of psychoanalytic candidates. He continued to pursue his interests in art, music, history and mathematics, and to write. In 1993 a severe stroke led to his passing, and Caissa was deprived of one of her greatest talents. Still, this book is not a biography, and instead seeks only "to make available a comprehensive collection of Fine's games played at classical time limits and present them chronologically and in context." Towards that end Woodger has managed to amass some 659 tournament games, plus one exhibition and one practice game; four fragments from tournament or match games; 28 rapid transit games from US Lightning championship tournaments; 34 correspondence games, including nine fragments; and "something" over 120 miscellaneous exhibition, clock simultaneous exhibition, blitz, and consultation games. The dozen or so photographs contained in the book are from the collection of Edward Winter. The games. That's what this book really is all about, and Woodger presents the games with a synthesis of notes borrowed from the best sources available, occasionally adding his own observations, tested with Fritz. Diagrams are limited to no more than one or two per game, sometimes none at all, and some games are given without annotation. Crosstables are given, when available, along with a short synopsis of the tournament or match itself. Let's finish this review with one of those games, from the early part of Fine's career (notes are Fine's, ACB 1933, 131). Fine,R - Dake,A [D70] [Click
here to follow along on an interactive JavaScript board] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Nc3 0-0 8.Qd2 e5 Better seems 8...Nc6 9.Rd1 e5 10.d5 Nd4 Alekhine-Bogolyubov, Bled 1931. 9.d5 c6 10.a4 But this is not good. I overlooked the possibility of Black's 11th move. Correct, in my opinion, is 10.0-0-0! Black is then underdeveloped; White's attack is easier and should succeed first. 10...cxd5 11.exd5 Qh4+ 12.Bf2 Qb4 13.a5 Nc4 14.Bxc4 Qxc4 15.Nge2 Na6 16.0-0 Nc5 17.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 18.Kh1 Rd8 19.Qg5 f6 20.Qh4 g5 Black's last two moves have only succeeded in blocking the diagonal of his king's bishop. Now the White knights are superior to the Black bishops. 21.Qa4 Bf5 22.Rfd1 Rac8 23.Ng3 Bg6 24.Nge4 Qc4 25.Qa3 Bf8 26.d6 Kg7 27.Rd5 If 27.Rd2 f5! 28.Nxg5 h6 29.Nh3 Rc6 30.Rad1 Qe6 31.Nb5 (31.Qb4 Rd7 32.Nb5 a6 33.Nf4 preserves White's advantage. AW) 31...a6. 27...Bf7 28.Rd2 Rc6 Threatening ...Ra6 followed by ...b6. To this manoeuvre, however, White has an adequate reply. Safer is the exchange of queens; 28...Qb3 after which Black has a slight advantage because of White's weak pawns. 29.Rad1 Ra6 30.Qa1 b6 This is not good as the continuation of the game shows. If 30...f5 31.b3! Qxb3 32.Nd5; Relatively best was 30...h6. 31.Qc1 Rxa5
32.Nxf6!! Kxf6 33.Ne4+ Kg7 34.Rc2! The point: the roads are now opened for the White pieces. 34...Qa4 He must keep an eye on White's rooks. On 34...Qe6 there could follow simply 35.Qxg5+ and 36.Qxd8. 35.Qxg5+ Bg6 36.Rc7+ Kg8 The text allows mate in three, but Black is lost in any case. If 36...Rd7 37.b3! Qb5 38.Qf6+ Kg8 39.Qe6+ Rf7 40.d7 and wins. Also good is 37.Nc3. 37.Qxg6+!! 1-0 He resigns right before mate: 37.Qxg6+ hxg6 38.Nf6+ Kh8 39.Rh7 mate. Reuben Fine - A Comprehensive Record of an American Chess Career, 1929-1951 is a solid contribution to the story of an age in American chess the likes of which we may never see again, and of a player who comes along only a few times in each lifetime. While a bit pricey for the average chessplayer, the chess historian and the diehard chess aficionado will want to add this title to their library. I consider it money well spent. Former field archaeologist Aidan Woodger compiles chess
books in his spare time. He lives in Halifax, West Yorks, United Kingdom.
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Of his many tournament victories, perhaps the best result for Fine was the 1938 A.V.R.O.
tournament, where he finished equal first with the Estonian, Paul Keres. The field in this event consisted of the strongest eight
players in the world: the reigning World Champion, two past World Champions,
a future World Champion, two future World Champion Candidates, the FIDE
official challenger, and Fine. The organizers hoped the tourney would serve as a candidate
tournament, to select a challenger for a world title match. Keres had
the better tiebreaks, and became the challenger to Alekhine, a match that
never occurred.
