Fred Reinfeld

Fred Reinfeld (January 27, 1910 – May 29, 1964) was a prolific American writer on chess and many other subjects, whose books are still read today. He was also a strong chess master, often among the top ten American players from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, as well as a popular college chess instructor.

Early life, family, and education

Fred Reinfeld was born in New York City, and lived his entire life within its metropolitan area. His father Barnett Reinfeld was of Polish heritage, while his mother Rose (Pogrezelsky) was of Romanian heritage.[1]

Reinfeld learned chess in his early teen years, and played for his high school team. He joined the Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan in 1926.[2] He became involved in correspondence chess while in high school.[3]

Reinfeld attended New York University and the College of the City of New York, studying accounting. He won the U.S. Intercollegiate championship in 1929 while at NYU.[4]

He married his fiancée Beatrice in 1932. They had two children: Donald in 1942 and Judith in 1947.[5]

Chess writing

Fred Reinfeld was a prolific author, having written or co-written well over 100 books.[6]

Reinfeld began writing about chess in late 1932.[7] His first book, co-authored with Isaac Kashdan, was an account of the Bled 1931 master tournament.[8]

He became a charter writer for the new magazine Chess Review in 1933, and was a senior editor there by 1947.[9]

More than half of his books were about chess, including books on the opening (Winning Chess Openings), the middlegame (1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations), and game collections (Great Brilliancy Prize Games of the Chess Masters), as well as biographies of Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca, Paul Keres, Emanuel Lasker (co-written with Reuben Fine), Paul Morphy (Andrew Soltis completed and published this book years after Reinfeld's death), and Aron Nimzowitsch.

Most of Reinfeld's chess books, such as The Complete Chess Player, were geared toward novice players. Many players received their first introduction to the game through his books. Reinfeld also wrote books for more advanced players, but they sold fewer copies. He certainly had the chess knowledge, research skills and writing ability to write high-quality books, but decided to specialize in basic books for chess beginners, since they sold much better, and he was able to make a living from this.

In 1996, Reinfeld became the 26th person inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame, and the first inducted primarily for his writing.[10]

Competitive chess

Playing strength

Although Reinfeld is remembered today mainly for his writing, he was also one of the strongest chess players in the United States from the early 1930s to the early 1940s, after which he withdrew from competition. He was ranked sixth in the country, with a rating of 2593, on the first rating list issued by the United States Chess Federation in 1950, after Reuben Fine, Samuel Reshevsky, Alexander Kevitz, Arthur Dake, and Albert Simonson.[11] Chessmetrics ranks him as the 64th best player in the world in March and April 1943.[12] However, the next year's USCF rating list did not include Reinfeld, as he had withdrawn from competitive play.[13]

Although he was never formally awarded an international title in chess, his playing strength during his peak years, measured by his rating, places him at or near the International Master class. International titles were awarded by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, beginning in 1950, while international chess ratings were started in 1970. The United States was one of the first nations to implement a national rating system, using work done by Professor Arpad Elo, and his statistical methods were later adapted to international chess as well. The chessmetrics group, which retrospectively rates chess events and players, endeavoring to estimate the playing strengths of players on an historical basis, places Reinfeld with a peak rating of 2532 in May 1942, good for #70 in the world. His highest world rank on this basis was #64, from March to April 1942. However, it is possible that not all of his important competitive events have been included for calculation.[14]

Tournament highlights

Reinfeld twice won the New York State Championship, in 1931 and 1933.[15] In 1933, he finished all eleven rounds undefeated, ahead of Fine, Anthony Santasiere, and Arnold Denker.[16]

In 1932, he placed third at the Western Open in Minneapolis, behind only Fine and Reshevsky.[17] He was invited to the very strong Pasadena International tournament and placed 7-10th; the winner was world champion Alexander Alekhine.

In the 1933 U.S. Olympic Team Qualification tournament, held in New York, he scored 4/10, tied 8-9th, and did not make the team; Fine, Dake and Simonson qualified. Reinfeld won the Marshall Chess Club title in 1934-35.[18]

Reinfeld qualified twice for the finals of the U.S. Chess Championship. In 1938, he scored 6.5/16, just below the middle, with Reshevsky winning. In 1940, Reinfeld scored 7.5/16 for a similar placing, with Reshevsky once again the champion. In that era, only national championships of the Soviet Union featured stronger fields than the American national championship. At Ventnor City 1939, he was second with 8/11; the champion was Milton Hanauer. At Ventnor City 1941, he was again second with 6/9, behind only Jacob Levin.[19] He tied for the title in the 1942 Manhattan Chess Club Championship with Sidney Norman Bernstein.[20]

Reinfeld never competed internationally outside the United States. He withdrew from most tournament play after 1942, when his first child was born.

During his career, he won tournament games against grandmasters Reshevsky (twice), Fine, Frank Marshall, and Denker, and drew against world champion Alexander Alekhine.[21]

Non-chess writing

Reinfeld wrote his first book about a subject other than chess in 1948 -- an abridged version of Charles Dickens' famous work Oliver Twist.[22]

Reinfeld also wrote books on a number of other subjects, including checkers (How to Win at Checkers), numismatics (Coin Collector's Handbook), philately (Commemorative Stamps of the U.S.A.), geology (Treasures of the Earth), history (Trappers of the West), medicine (Miracle Drugs and the New Age of Medicine), physics (Rays Visible and Invisible), political science (The Biggest Job in the World: The American Presidency), and jurisprudence (The Great Dissenters: Guardians of Their Country's Laws and Liberties).[23] The latter book won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award. In addition to his own name, Reinfeld wrote under the pseudonyms Robert V. Masters and Edward Young. Reinfeld's 19 numismatic works were the subject of an article by Leonard D. Augsberger in the November–December 2000 issue of Rare Coin Review.[24]

Professor, consultant

From the early 1930s, Reinfeld was a part-time chess instructor in the adult education departments at both New York University and Columbia University, where his courses were popular. He served as a consultant to the World Book Encyclopedia and the Random House College Dictionary. By the late 1940s, he was on the staff of NYU in the School of General Education.[25]

Library donated to NYU

After his death, his widow Beatrice donated his library in 1965 to New York University; it contained more than 1,000 books, of which he had written about 260.[26]

Death

On May 29, 1964, Reinfeld died at the age of 54 in East Meadow, New York,[27][28] reportedly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.[29]

Sample games

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 c5 6.d5 exd5 7.Nh4 g6 8.Nc3 h6 9.0-0 a6 10.cxd5 d6 11.e4 Bg7 12.f4 Nfd7 13.a4 0-0 14.Be3 Kh7 15.Qc2 Nf6 16.h3 Nbd7 17.Rae1 Re8 18.Bf2 Ng8 19.e5 dxe5 20.f5 Nf8 21.fxg6+ fxg6 22.Be4 Qd6 23.Be3 Ne7 24.Rf7 Kg8 25.Ref1 Nxd5 26.Rxb7 Nxe3 27.Qf2 Nf5 28.Nxf5 gxf5 29.Qxf5 Kh8 30.Rf7 Ng6 1–0[30]
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d5 6.c4 c6 7.cxd5 cxd5 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.a3 Ne4 10.Be3 Nxc3 11.bxc3 Na5 12.Bf4 Bd7 13.Ne5 Bb5 14.Nd3 Rc8 15.a4 Ba6 16.Ra3 b6 17.Re1 Nc4 18.Ra2 Na5 19.Nb4 Bb7 20.Qd3 e6 21.h4 Rc4 22.Rb1 Qd7 23.Bd2 Rfc8 24.f4 h5 25.e4 dxe4 26.Bxe4 Rxc3 27.Bxc3 Rxc3 28.Qxc3 Bxd4+ 29.Kh2 Bxc3 30.Bxb7 Qxb7 31.Nd3 Qe4 0–1[31]
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.cxd5 cxd5 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bf4 e6 7.e3 Bd6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6 9.Bd3 0-0 10.0-0 e5 11.Nb5 Qe7 12.dxe5 Nxe5 13.Be2 Nxf3+ 14.Bxf3 Be6 15.Qe2 Rfc8 16.Rfd1 Rc5 17.Rd4 Rac8 18.Nc3 Rc4 19.Rad1 Rxd4 20.Rxd4 h6 21.h3 Rc5 22.Qd3 Qc7 23.g4 g5 24.Kg2 Qe5 25.b4 Rc4 26.Nxd5 Bxd5 27.Rxd5 Rc3 28.Rxe5 Rxd3 29.Ra5 b6 30.Rxa7 Nd7 31.Ra6 Kg7 32.Bc6 Ne5 33.Rxb6 Rd2 34.a4 Nc4 35.Rb7 Nxe3+ 36.Kf3 Nd1 37.Rd7 Rxf2+ 38.Kg3 Rf1 39.a5 Nc3 40.a6 Ne2+ 41.Kg2 Ra1 42.a7 Nf4+ 43.Kf3 Ra3+ 44.Ke4 Nxh3 45.a8=Q Nf2+ 46.Kf5 1–0[32]

Trivia

James Grady's 1974 novel Six Days of the Condor used quotations from Reinfeld's 1959 The Complete Chess Course as introductions to three of its chapters.

Books

Books on chess

Book of Chess series

Books on other subjects

Other books by Fred Reinfeld (aka Robert Masters):[23]

References

  1. ↑ chess.com/blog/billwall/fred-reinfeld
  2. ↑ Wall
  3. ↑ chessgames.com, the Fred Reinfeld games collection
  4. ↑ Wall
  5. ↑ Wall
  6. ↑ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), "Reinfeld, Fred", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
  7. ↑ wall
  8. ↑ wall
  9. ↑ Wall
  10. ↑ Notes: See Wikipedia article on World Chess Hall of Fame, which also has U.S. Chess Hall of Fame inductees listed; every prior inductee of the U.S. Hall was either a national and/or international champion, a problemist, an organizer/promoter, or, if a writer, was also memorable for other achievements (such as Herman Helms, who was known for his writing but also for his promotion and organizing), while Reinfeld was a strong player but not a national champion, and did not contribute in other areas.
  11. ↑ As of July 31, 1950, the top ratings were Fine (2817), Reshevsky (2770), Kevitz (2610), Dake (2598), Simonson (2596), Reinfeld (2593), Arnold Denker (2575), Isaac Kashdan (2574), I. A. Horowitz (2558), and Abraham Kupchik (2538). "The United States Chess Federation National Chess Ratings (as of July 31, 1950)", Chess Life, November 20, 1950, p. 3. Also available on DVD (p. 93 in "Chess Life 1950" PDF file).
  12. ↑ Params=199510SSSSS3S107566000000141100208800008910100. Retrieved on 2015-04-12.
  13. ↑ Wall
  14. ↑ chessmetrics.com, the Fred Reinfeld events file
  15. ↑ nysca.net, list of New York State champions
  16. ↑ Kashdan, Isaac, ed. (September 1933), "As We Go to Press", The Chess Review 1 (9), p. 2
  17. ↑ Wall
  18. ↑ Wall
  19. ↑ chessmetrics.com, the Fred Reinfeld career results file
  20. ↑ chessgames.com biography
  21. ↑ There is a selection of 114 of his games at chessgames.com.
  22. ↑ Wall
  23. 1 2 Edward Winter, Reinfeld's Non-Chess Books (2002)
  24. ↑ Wayne Homren, NUMISMATIC WORKS OF FRED REINFELD. Retrieved on 2009-05-03.
  25. ↑ Wall
  26. ↑ Wall
  27. ↑ Chess Review, July 1964, pp. 193-94.
  28. ↑ Jeremy Gaige, Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography, McFarland & Company, 1987, p. 350. ISBN 0-7864-2353-6.
  29. ↑ David A. Boehm, The Fascination of Book Publishing, New York, 1994, pp. 61-67. Chess historian Edward Winter has questioned the reliability of this source, noting that it erroneously claims that Reinfeld had mastered the game by age six. Chess Note 5937. Retrieved on 2009-02-21.
  30. ↑ Reinfeld vs Reshevsky
  31. ↑ Reshevsky vs Reinfeld
  32. ↑ Reinfeld vs. Marshall

External links

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