Fred Reinfeld (January 27, 1910 – May 29, 1964) was an American writer on chess and many other subjects. 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 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-Jewish heritage, while his mother Rose (née Pogrezelsky) was of Romanian-Jewish heritage.[1]
He married his fiancée Beatrice in 1932. They had two children: Donald, born in 1942, and Judith, born in 1947.[2]
Chess writing
Fred Reinfeld was a prolific author, having written or co-written well over 100 books.[4]
Reinfeld began writing about chess in late 1932.[5] His first book, co-authored with Isaac Kashdan, was an account of the Bled 1931 master tournament.[5]
He became a charter writer for the new magazine Chess Review in 1933, and was a senior editor there by 1947.[2]
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-level 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.[6]
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.[7] However, the next year's USCF rating list did not include Reinfeld, as he had withdrawn from competitive play.[2]
Tournament highlights
Reinfeld twice won the New York State Championship, in 1931 and 1933.[8] In 1933, he finished all eleven rounds undefeated, ahead of Fine, Anthony Santasiere, and Arnold Denker.[9]
In 1932, he placed third at the Western Open in Minneapolis, behind only Fine and Reshevsky.[2] 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.[2]
Reinfeld qualified twice for the finals of the U.S. Chess Championship. In 1938, he scored 6½/16, just below the middle, with Reshevsky winning. In 1940, Reinfeld scored 7½/16 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 in 1939, he was second with 8/11; the champion was Milton Hanauer. At Ventnor City in 1941, he was again second with 6/9, behind only Jacob Levin.[10] He tied for the title in the 1942 Manhattan Chess Club Championship with Sidney Norman Bernstein.[11]
Reinfeld never competed internationally outside the United States. He withdrew from most tournament play after 1942, when his first child was born.
Reinfeld wrote his first book about a subject other than chess in 1948—an abridged version of Charles Dickens' famous work Oliver Twist.[2]
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).[13] 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.[14]
Professor and 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.[2]
Death and library
On May 29, 1964, Reinfeld died at the age of 54 in East Meadow, New York,[15][16] reportedly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.[17] In 1965, his widow Beatrice Levine donated his library to New York University; it contained more than 1,000 books, of which he had written about 260.[2]
How To Get More Out of Chess (Hanover, Garden City, 1957)
How To Improve Your Chess (with Horowitz) (Collier, New York, 1952)
How To Play Better Chess (Pitman, New York, 1948)
How To Play Chess Like A Champion (Hanover, Garden City, 1956)
How To Play Winning Chess (Bantam Books, New York, 1962)
How to Think Ahead in Chess (with Horowitz)
How To Win Chess Games Quickly (Barnes & Noble, New York, 1957)
Hypermodern Chess: As Developed in the Games of its Greatest Exponent Aron Nimzovich (Dover, New York, 1948)(ISBN0-486-20448-0)
Improving Your Chess: The Nine Bad Moves and How to Avoid Them (Faber, London, 1954)
Improving Your Chess (Sterling, New York, 1955) excerpted from the Second, Third, Forth and Fifth Book of Chess, plus 1001 Brilliant Chess Sacrifices and Combinations all by Fred Reinfeld
Instructive and Practical Endings From Master Chess
^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.
^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).
^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.
