Teenage master Fine began chess as a young teenager at the famous
Manhattan Chess Club, where he hustled for nickels, until he was asked to stop; he used the money to help feed his family. Afterwards he moved to the rival
Marshall Chess Club in New York City, stomping grounds for many famous players, such as
Bobby Fischer, later on. At this stage of his career, Fine played a great deal of
blitz chess, and he eventually became one of the best blitz players in the world. By the early 1930s, he could nearly hold his own in blitz chess against the then
world champion Alexander Alekhine, although Fine admitted that the few times he played blitz with Alekhine's predecessor
José Raúl Capablanca, the latter beat him "mercilessly". Fine's first significant master-level event was the 1930 New York Young Masters tournament, which was won by
Arthur Dake. He narrowly lost a 1931 stakes match to fellow young New York master
Arnold Denker. He defeated
Herman Steiner by 5½–4½ at New York 1932; this was the first of three matches between them.
U.S. Open Champion At 17, Fine won his first of seven
US Opens at
Minneapolis 1932 with 9½/11, half a point ahead of
Samuel Reshevsky; this tournament was known as the Western Open at the time. Fine played in his first top-class international tournament at
Pasadena 1932, where he shared 7th–10th with 5/11; the winner was world champion
Alexander Alekhine. Fine repeated as champion in the 16th Marshall Club Championship, held from October to December 1932, with 11½/13, 2½ points ahead of the runner-up.
College Fine graduated from
City College of New York in 1932, at the age of 18; he was a successful student there. He captained CCNY to the 1931 National Collegiate team title; a teammate was master
Sidney Bernstein. This tournament later evolved into the
Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Fine then decided to try the life of a chess professional for a few years. This earned him the first of three national team berths for the chess Olympiads. Fine won five medals (including three team golds) representing the United States; his detailed record follows; his totals are (+20−6=19), for 65.6%. •
Folkestone 1933: board three, 9/13 (+6−1=6), team gold, board silver •
Warsaw 1935: board one, 9/17 (+5−4=8), team gold •
Stockholm 1937: board two, 11½/15 (+9−1=5), team gold, board gold
North American successes Fine repeated as champion at the U.S./Western Open,
Detroit 1933, with 12/13, half a point ahead of Reshevsky. Fine won the 17th Marshall Club Championship, 1933–34, with 9½/11. He defeated
Al Horowitz in a match at New York 1934 by 6–3. Fine shared 1st–2nd at the U.S./Western Open,
Chicago 1934, on 7½/9, with Reshevsky. He then shared 1st–3rd at
Mexico City 1934, on 11/12, with
Herman Steiner and
Arthur Dake. At
Syracuse 1934, Fine shared 3rd–4th, on 10/14, as Reshevsky won. Fine won his fourth straight U.S./Western Open at
Milwaukee 1935, scoring 6½/9 in the preliminary round, and then 8/10 in the finals.
European debut Having had outstanding successes in North America, Fine tried his first European individual international tournament at
Łódź 1935, where he shared 2nd–3rd with 6/9 behind
Savielly Tartakower. Fine won
Hastings 1935–36 with 7½/9, a point ahead of
Salo Flohr.
Narrow misses at U.S. Championship Although Fine was active and very successful in U.S. open tournaments, he was never able to win the
U.S. Championship, usually placing behind his great American rival,
Samuel Reshevsky. The U.S. Championship was organized in a
round-robin format during that era. When in 1936
Frank Marshall voluntarily gave up the American Championship title he had held since 1909, the result was the first modern
U.S. Championship tournament. Fine scored 10½/15 in the U.S. Championship, New York City 1936, and tied third–fourth, as Reshevsky won. In the U.S. Championship, New York 1938, Fine placed second with 12½/16, with Reshevsky repeating as champion. In the U.S. Championship, New York 1940, Fine again scored 12½/16 for second place, as Reshevsky won for the third straight time. Then in the 1944 U.S. Championship at New York, Fine scored 14½/17 for second, losing his game to
Arnold Denker, and finishing half a point back, as the latter won his only national title.
Final competitive appearances Once Fine completed his doctorate, he did play some more competitive chess. He won at New York 1948 with 8/9, ahead of
Miguel Najdorf,
Max Euwe, and
Hermann Pilnik. Fine drew a match against Najdorf at 4–4 at New York 1949. He participated for the U.S. in the 1950 radio match against
Yugoslavia, drawing his only game. Fine received the title of International Grandmaster in 1950 from FIDE, on its first official list of titled players. Fine's final top-class event was the
Maurice Wertheim Memorial, New York 1951, where he scored 7/11 for 4th, as Reshevsky won.
Lifetime scores against top players Fine had a relatively short career in top-level chess, but scored well against top players. He faced five World Champions:
Emanuel Lasker (+1−0=0);
José Raúl Capablanca (+0−0=5, excluding simultaneous games);
Alexander Alekhine (+3−2=4);
Max Euwe (+2−2=3); and
Mikhail Botvinnik (+1−0=2). His main American rivals were
Samuel Reshevsky (+3−4=12);
Herman Steiner (+21−4=8);
Isaac Kashdan (+6−1=6);
Albert Simonson (+6−1=1);
Al Horowitz (+10−2=7);
Arnold Denker (+7−6=7);
Fred Reinfeld (+10−5=7); and
Arthur Dake (+7−7=5, with three losses as a 16-year-old against Dake in his 20s). Internationally, Fine faced the best of his time, and usually more than held his own, with three exceptions. He struggled against
Paul Keres (+1−3=8);
Milan Vidmar (+0−1=2); and
Isaac Boleslavsky (+0−1=1), but he handled everyone else:
Miguel Najdorf (+3−3=5);
Savielly Tartakower (+2−1=4);
Salo Flohr (+2−0=7);
Grigory Levenfish (+1−0=0);
George Alan Thomas (+2−0=3);
Erich Eliskases (+1−0=2);
Viacheslav Ragozin (+1−0=1);
Vladimirs Petrovs (+2−1=1);
Efim Bogoljubow (+1−0=1);
Jan Foltys (+2−0=0);
Salo Landau (+4−0=1);
George Koltanowski (+2−0=1);
Igor Bondarevsky (+1−0=0);
Géza Maróczy (+1−0=0);
William Winter (+4−0=0);
Ernst Grünfeld (+1−0=0);
Gideon Ståhlberg (+4−2=5);
Andor Lilienthal (+1−0=0);
László Szabó (+0−0=1);
Vladas Mikėnas (+1−0=1);
Rudolph Spielmann (+0−0=1); and
Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (+1−0=3). Finally, against the new generation of American masters which emerged in the late 1940s, Fine proved he could still perform well:
Arthur Bisguier (+1−0=1);
Larry Evans (+0−0=2); George Kramer (+1−0=1); and
Robert Byrne (+0−0=1).
Top ten for eight years Although
FIDE, the World Chess Federation, did not formally introduce chess ratings for international play until 1970, it is nevertheless possible to retrospectively rate players' performances from before that time. The site
Chessmetrics.com, which specializes in historical ratings throughout chess history, ranks Fine in the world's top ten players for more than eight years, from March 1936 until October 1942, and then again from January 1949 until December 1950. Fine was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1986, the charter class. He continued his successful chess writing career for many years after he retired from competition.
Notable games • Reuben Fine vs. Mikhail Botvinnik, Amsterdam AVRO 1938, French Defence, Winawer/Advance Variation (C17), 1–0 In the final position, "Black does not have a single move, and Rf3 is threatened. A combination of a splendid strategic idea with tactical subtleties." (Botvinnik) • Reuben Fine vs. Salomon Flohr, Amsterdam AVRO 1938, French Defence, Winawer/Advance Variation (C17), 1–0 Deep tactics in an unusual variant of the French Defense. • Reuben Fine vs. Herman Steiner, Pan-American Championship, Hollywood 1945. Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical (D29), 1–0 Fine sees further than his opponent in a sharp tactical position. ==Professional life==