Reuben Fine - A comprehensive record of an American Chess
Career 1929-1951. Author Aidan Woodger, 2004, 400 pages. Publisher McFarland
A book review by Davide Nastasio
Every book begins with a dream, and in this case the dream
of the author is quite interesting. He began to study chess seriously around
1980, and the hero he chose for his chess journey was Reuben Fine.
Fine was quite an interesting character. I was curious about
him, because of a book he wrote a long time ago on chess psychology, Morphy,
and Fischer.
GM Fine was also a fine author, who wrote many chess books.
But the only way to really know more about GM Fine, was
through the best publisher on the market, regarding chess biographies, which is
McFarland. If I'd be rich, I'd probably buy McFarland, just for giving the chance
to more authors like Aidan Woodger, to make their dreams come true. While at
the same time enriching myself with this astounding historical research, which
helps me to journey in the past. Let's say it, some of these books are like a
time machine, they let us explore the past, without actually moving from our
comfortable chairs.
This book has 882 games played by Fine, and meticulously
researched by the author, also thanks to the Library of Congress. Yes, the United States of America
is clearly the best also for saving our American heritage, and past history.
Of course, I don't want to appear too nationalistic, also if
the United States does merit praise for having great libraries, and a great
chess community, but obviously a masterpiece, like this book, is born only
through the collaboration of many individuals, in this case the author uses one
page of the book to thank all who contributed, and they are definitely a lot!
But let's make comparison, since as a reviewer I could be
biased in favor of McFarland, and their author. I just bought the new Chessbase
Megabase 2017, it is a professional database, with nearly 7 million games, a
product which is used by professionals, and amateurs like me for preparing
against other players, the cost is around 160$. Such database, which I do
consider a really good product, has only 514 games played by Fine! Can you
imagine at what length the author went to collect 368 more games?
I'd like to show also the thickness of the annotations to
the games, because clearly this book was the product of deep research, and of
the highest scholarship, since the author even quotes multiple commentators
inside the annotated games.
The annotations are good for their verbosity, often in
professional chess magazines we just read symbols to evaluate the position,
here instead phrases are used to explain the evaluation.
The author has consulted game collections, magazines,
articles, journals, tournament books, in 13 different languages to compile this
book.
In the book I've noticed, used few times, an old chess time
control: "transit-rapid chess" which I didn't know. We could think it
relates to blitz, like 3 minutes per game, but after searching through
different sources I understood it was a complete different kind of chess. It
was based on an allotted time per move, it could be 10 seconds, or 30 seconds.
Of course a game could last 1 hour if reached the 50 moves, but at the same
time, if one of the two players would go over the time limit per move on move
tenth, he would lose.
It seems Fine was a chess speed demon, because he won
multiple tournaments with this time control.
But if we dig deep in the book, around page 331, games 828
onward, we discover that Fine also gave a simul, against four players using
rapid-transit time control, 10 seconds for him, and 30 seconds for the players
against him. What's special will you ask? It was a rapid transit blindfold
simul!
The book begins with a brief biography on Reuben Fine.
Clearly he must have had a tough life. He was born in October 1914, the Great
War, World War I, began in July of that tragic year, and would destroys
countless lives, as well as the hope for a better future for millions and
millions of people all around the globe.
Fine was likely too young to understand the 4 years of that
terrible war, but he was left by the father when he was 2, and his chess
career, around 1932, began in another terrible historical moment: the Great
Depression.
When I read a biography I generally pay attention to what that
player did in order to become good. I also relate to what other players say
they did. One common feature the master level players all agree is about
reading some chess classics. Notice how lucky we are today because most of
chess books are translated in English. Fine for reading the famous Dreihundert
Schachpartien written by Tarrasch (Three Hundred Chess games) had to learn
German!
Why do I mention such book? Because it is one of the books
Fischer also mentioned, that taught him the principles of chess! Fischer, who
also lived a poor life, read it at the library!
But of course, not only that book was in German, also the
famous Nimzowitsch "Mein System," and Reti's "des
schachbretts" were in German language, and Fine studied them too!
Now, let me try to explain who Fine was, making a brief
outline of his chess career. He became passionate about playing chess around
1929, when he was 15. And by 1936, seven years later, he was able to defeat the
great Keres with the Black pieces in tournament. Keres was a GM level player,
and in that period was going to become a world champion contender.
This is their game:
In chess, during a world match, there are the "seconds."
Those players who help the world champion to defend the title, or the
challenger to defeat the champion. Can you guess who was Euwe's second for
defending the world championship against Alekhine?
Yes, it was a rhetorical question, since clearly the subject
of this review is: Fine.
So, can you imagine how brilliant must have been this young
guy, that in just 7 years, passed from unknown in the chess world, to be a
world class player?
I find the brief biography quite excellent in enlightening
Fine's competitive life, and the connections and battles he played against the
other top players of the period. Clearly the top tournament one should read on
is AVRO 1938.
In that tournament just for a tie-break Keres became the official
world champion challenger. Fine made the same score Keres did, and he could
have been the challenger. But here is the tragic part, which continues to
reflect on the lives of these players: Keres issued the challenge to Alekhine,
but World War II begins, and obviously chess is forgotten, for a war which will
obliterate million of young lives. What happens once the war ends, still change
the course of Fine's chess destiny. A new tournament is organized in order to
designate the world champion: The Hague-Moscow 1948, but Fine declines to
participate... and Botvinnik's wins, beginning the Soviet Union Chess
supremacy, until Fischer!
However, I don't want to spoil all the surprises from the
brief biography.
The bulk of the book is made by the Career History and
Collected games. This part is better than the brief biography in outlining Fine's
chess life. The games are really high quality, and Fine, had world events been
different, could have been a world champion, no doubt. From a brief look at
many of his games I noticed that Fine was a universal player, who would open
with 1.e4 or 1.d4, and have a great opening repertoire. This could be appealing
to any kind of player who wants to learn an opening repertoire, from one of the
best chess players in history.
The games are well annotated, and that is nice. Fine played
against all the top players in the world, many times. This makes the collection
of games particularly important, for the quality of the games played.
But I'd like to show you why Fine could have been considered
a world champion. Watch how he chops Botvinnik in just 31 moves:
Of course in the book there are many more games worth
studying.
The book continues with Career results tables, and finish
with appendices, and bibliography.
I love this book, and thanks to this author I learned to
appreciate this great player. Nowadays he is unknown, forgotten, but he is the
one who shaped the like of Fischer and many other champions. In fact Fischer
played few games against him, in order to progress to the next level! We can
find the games played by Fischer against Fine inside this wonderful book.
What I really appreciate is that in order to make this book
a reality, fifty people around the globe have collaborated in finding games,
consulting libraries, exchanging tons of letters, and I keep the final product
of years of their work and passion in my palm!
I also love the paper on which this book is printed. Heavy
paper, not white, slightly yellow, better for reading.
If a chess player wants to give quality over quantity to his
own chess library, this is definitely a book one must have!
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