Fred Reinfeld

Fred Reinfeld (January 27, 1910 – May 29, 1964) was an American writer on chess and many other subjects.

He joined the Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan in 1926.

He became involved in correspondence chess while in high school.

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.

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.

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.

Reinfeld learned chess in his early teen years and played for his high school team.

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.

However, the next year's USCF rating list did not include Reinfeld, as he had withdrawn from competitive play.

His first book, co-authored with Isaac Kashdan, was an account of the Bled 1931 master tournament.

Reinfeld twice won the New York State Championship, in 1931 and 1933.

He married his fiancée Beatrice in 1932.

Reinfeld began writing about chess in late 1932.

In 1932, he placed third at the Western Open in Minneapolis, behind only Fine and Reshevsky.

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

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 1933, he finished all eleven rounds undefeated, ahead of Fine, Anthony Santasiere, and Arnold Denker.

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.

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.

At Ventnor City in 1939, he was second with 8/11; the champion was Milton Hanauer.

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 1941, he was again second with 6/9, behind only Jacob Levin.

They had two children: Donald, born in 1942, and Judith, born in 1947.

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

He tied for the title in the 1942 Manhattan Chess Club Championship with Sidney Norman Bernstein.

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.

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

He was invited to the very strong Pasadena International tournament and placed 7-10th; the winner was world champion Alexander Alekhine.