The chess games of Reuben Fine

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Reuben Fine

Fine

Number of games in database: 546
Years covered: 1930 to 1986

Overall record: +285 -67 =152 (71.6%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 42 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS

With the White pieces:

Nimzo Indian (33)
    E33 E37 E23 E40 E43
Orthodox Defense (29)
    D51 D55 D63 D50 D60
Queen's Gambit Declined (27)
    D37 D30 D06 D35 D39
Grunfeld (20)
    D83 D81 D70 D82 D75
Ruy Lopez (16)
    C86 C83 C70 C79 C90
Slav (13)
    D17 D11 D18 D12 D10

With the Black pieces:

Nimzo Indian (31)
    E33 E34 E43 E23 E45
Sicilian (21)
    B45 B29 B84 B20 B40
French Defense (21)
    C01 C14 C11 C02 C18
Ruy Lopez (19)
    C73 C83 C71 C74 C84
Queen's Gambit Declined (17)
    D38 D39 D30 D37 D35
Orthodox Defense (17)
    D51 D65 D50 D68 D61

Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Fine vs Botvinnik, 1938 1-0
   Fine vs W Winter, 1936 1-0
   Fine vs Dake, 1933 1-0
   I A Horowitz vs Fine, 1934 0-1
   Capablanca vs Fine, 1938 1/2-1/2
   Fine vs Alekhine, 1938 1-0
   Fine vs Flohr, 1938 1-0
   Reshevsky vs Fine, 1941 1/2-1/2
   Fine vs Lasker, 1936 1-0
   Fine vs Gruenfeld, 1936 1-0

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   Hastings 1935/36 (1935)
   Horowitz - Fine Match (1934)
   Zandvoort (1936)
   New York 1948/49 (1948)
   Syracuse (1934)
   Hastings 1936/37 (1936)
   Margate (1937)
   AVRO (1938)
   United States Championship (1940)
   US Championship (1936)
   Nottingham (1936)
   Wertheim Memorial (1951)
   Kemeri (1937)
   Folkestone Olympiad (1933)
   Stockholm Olympiad (1937)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Passion for Chess (Fine) by rookchat9
   Passion for Chess (Fine) by Qindarka
   Passion for Chess (Fine) by neontheorist
   Match Fine! by docjan
   Match Fine! by amadeus
   Fines - Lessons From My Games by rookchat9
   Fines - Lessons From My Games by scheidt
   Fine by Morten
   Chess Review 1945 by Phony Benoni
   American Chess Bulletin 1933 by Phony Benoni
   American Chess Bulletin 1936 by Phony Benoni
   Chess Review 1939 by Phony Benoni
   US Open 1935, Milwaukee = 36th ACF Congress by Phony Benoni
   US Open 1934, Chicago = 35th ACF Tournament by Phony Benoni

GAMES ANNOTATED BY FINE: [what is this?]
Fine vs Botvinnik, 1938

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REUBEN FINE
(born Oct-11-1914, died Mar-26-1993, 78 years old) United States of America

[what is this?]

Reuben Fine was born in 1914. He grew up in New York City and first learned to play chess at the age of eight. After winning several strong American tournaments as a youth, Fine turned to international competition. He played on three US Olympiad teams from 1933 to 1937, winning one gold and one silver individual medal, while all three teams finished first (http://www.olimpbase.org/players/rn...). In 1937 he tied with Paul Keres for first at Margate, and at the AVRO tournament the next year he again finished tied for first with Keres.

During World War II he was employed by the Navy to calculate where enemy submarines might surface.

After World War II, he was offered an invitation to the World Championship tournament in 1948, but declined to participate. He retired from chess a few years later in order to pursue a career in psychology. In his foreshortened career, Fine played tournament games against five world champions. He had overall plus scores against Emanuel Lasker, Alexander Alekhine, and Mikhail Botvinnik, and even records against Jose Raul Capablanca and Max Euwe.

He was an author of note, his most recognized works being Basic Chess Endings, Ideas Behind the Chess Openings and the sixth edition of Modern Chess Openings.

Wikipedia article: Reuben Fine

Last updated: 2022-10-11 20:59:48

page 1 of 23; games 1-25 of 553

Game	Result	Moves	Year	Event/Locale	Opening
1. Dake vs Fine	1-0	35	1930	young masters	A07 King's Indian Attack
2. F Reinfeld vs Fine	1-0	55	1930	Rice Club Junior Masters	C14 French, Classical
3. F Reinfeld vs Fine	0-1	34	1930	Marshall Chess Club-ch, Prelim	C73 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense
4. F Reinfeld vs Fine	1-0	36	1931	Impromptu match	E23 Nimzo-Indian, Spielmann
5. Fine vs J Rappaport	1-0	28	1931	USA Intercollegiate ch 1931/32	A00 Uncommon Opening
6. Fine vs Dake	0-1	17	1931	Match	E43 Nimzo-Indian, Fischer Variation
7. Fine vs F Reinfeld	½-½	18	1931	New York State Championship	D32 Queen's Gambit Declined, Tarrasch
8. F Reinfeld vs Fine	1-0	24	1932	Marshall CC Championship	D65 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack, Main line
9. A Kevitz vs Fine	1-0	38	1932	Metropolitan Chess League	A90 Dutch
10. H Steiner vs Fine	½-½	75	1932	Match	E11 Bogo-Indian Defense
11. Fine vs H Steiner	1-0	38	1932	Match	E34 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, Noa Variation
12. Fine vs H Steiner	0-1	31	1932	Match	D35 Queen's Gambit Declined
13. H Steiner vs Fine	1-0	40	1932	Match	C49 Four Knights
14. Fine vs H Steiner	0-1	37	1932	Match	A13 English
15. H Steiner vs Fine	1-0	61	1932	Match	D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
16. H Steiner vs Fine	0-1	65	1932	Match	B03 Alekhine's Defense
17. Fine vs H Steiner	1-0	37	1932	Match	E41 Nimzo-Indian
18. H Steiner vs Fine	0-1	28	1932	Match	D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
19. Fine vs H Steiner	½-½	58	1932	Match	A15 English
20. F Reinfeld vs Fine	½-½	20	1932	Western Championship	C49 Four Knights
21. Fine vs S Factor	1-0	54	1932	Western Championship	A60 Benoni Defense
22. J Harris vs Fine	0-1	38	1932	Western Championship	B32 Sicilian
23. Fine vs F Hazard	1-0	41	1932	Western Championship	D52 Queen's Gambit Declined
24. Fine vs H Steiner	1-0	43	1932	Western Championship	E41 Nimzo-Indian
25. G S Barnes vs Fine	0-1	38	1932	Western Championship	D63 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense


page 1 of 23; games 1-25 of 553

REFINE SEARCH: White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Fine wins | Fine loses

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 19 OF 19 · Later Kibitzing>
Mar-14-18		TheFocus: <madlydeeply: i read a Fine book wherein he referred to soviet players as using "harem scarem" tactics.> Must have been an Elvis fan.

Mar-15-18		offramp: <zanzibar: There is no game of Fine's in the 2010 edition of the <Mammoth Book>. That's just not right!> Perhaps the editors thought, "There is no Reuben Fine game - it takes too much time to find a game by him which one can enjoy."

May-31-18		takchess: http://tartajubow.blogspot.com/2018...

May-31-18		sudoplatov: We do have an estimate of how well Fine would have done in the USSR. Leningrad 1937 won by Fine. Moscow 1937 won by Fine. Neither in the database.

May-31-18		Retireborn: Fine did play in Moscow in 1946 (as part of the US team) and his observations of Botvinnik etc then may have played a part in his 1948 decision, perhaps.

Jun-01-18		Granny O Doul: That footage linked by Jonathan Sarfati above is from "the Great Chess Movie", which is watchable on youtube and without the subtitles, at least at this moment.

Jul-13-18		Sally Simpson: Horowitz was giving a simultaneous display in Portland. Ruben Fine adopted a disguise and took a board. (Chess Review 1942) https://www.redhotpawn.com/imgu/blo...

Jul-13-18		JimNorCal: Sally, that is a cool photo! I'd never heard of this stunt before, what a great joke.

Jul-13-18		HeMateMe: He looks like father guido sarducci.

Nov-15-18		anjumskhan: His plus scores against all greats is enough for him to earn my respect.

Jul-03-19		Chesgambit: Fine vs Alekhine 1963

Jul-03-19		csmath: Alekhine died 1946 so unless he played as a ghost that 1963 game was impossible.

Jul-03-19		beatgiant: He probably transposed 1936 to 1963.

Jul-04-19		csmath: Well, there is a 1963 Evans Gambit game where 20-year-old Bobby Fischer absolutely annihilated Reuben Fine and destroyed all the chess mystique associated with Fine.

Oct-11-19		Cibator: <csmath: Well, there is a 1963 Evans Gambit game where 20-year-old Bobby Fischer absolutely annihilated Reuben Fine and destroyed all the chess mystique associated with Fine.> And that, my friends, is more or less what Morphy would have done to Staunton a century earlier. The players' ages and circumstances in each case are near-exact parallels.

Nov-17-19		Ron: I was in a used bookstore today, and I came across a book by Rueben Fine, _A History of Psychoanalysis_. https://www.amazon.com/History-Psyc... I browsed through it, wondering, Reuben Fine gave up chess for this intellectual garbage?

Nov-17-19		HeMateMe: I'm just happy there are still used bookstores <somewhere> in the USA. We no longer have them in NYC except for Goodwill stores, and the books there are mostly garbage.

Nov-29-19		Ron: I wonder if Reuben Fine had any psychoanalytic patients who were chess enthusiasts. I think it would be pretty cool if Reuben Fine discussed chess with his patients.

Mar-18-20		Parachessus: I forget who said it, but someone said that Fine's leaving chess was a loss for chess and a draw at best for psychoanalysis.

Jun-13-20		OhioChessFan: I've been laughing over the redhotpawn pic for 2 minutes now....

Jun-15-20		Caissanist: I don't know if anyone took him up on the offer, but there was a blurb in the 1975 <Chess Life and Review> where Fine wrote <‘It would please me if you mentioned that I direct a low-cost mental health clinic, known as the Center for Creative Living, located at 9 East 89th Street, New York, NY 10028, (212) 369-3330, which has a special section for the therapy of the creative individual. Any chessplayer in need of help will receive my personal attention.’>.

Jun-15-20		Caissanist: Per Edward Winter, the original source for the quote about Fine's career being a loss for chess and at best a draw for psychoanalysis seems to have been Gilbert Cant, a longtime writer for <Time>: https://www.chesshistory.com/winter... .

Jun-15-20		harrylime: he'd have a better chance of becoming WORLD CHESS champion now. Along with Keres and Reshevski

Jun-16-20		Troller: <harrylime: he'd have a better chance of becoming WORLD CHESS champion now. Along with Keres and Reshevski> Doubt it. Being dead is seldom an advantage when fighting for the crown.

Oct-10-20		FSR: Peter Heine Nielsen and Jan Gustafsson rank Fine the 32nd greatest player of all time, ahead of the likes of Tarrasch, Ivanchuk, Pillsbury and Chigorin. https://chess24.com/en/learn/advanc...

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