FINE, REUBEN

FINE, REUBEN (1914–1992), U.S. chess master and psychoanalyst. Fine was born in New York City, where he studied at City College. Growing up in the East Bronx in a poor Russian-Jewish family, he first learned to play chess from an uncle at the age of eight. After winning several American tournaments as a youth, he turned to international competition. His important victories took place at Zandvoort, Amsterdam (1936), where he won an equal first prize with Flohr; Stockholm (1937); Moscow and Leningrad (1937); and Margate (1937). In the two top tournaments in the U.S.S.R., he was the first foreigner ever to come in first. At Nottingham in 1936 he was a joint third behind Capablanca and botvinnik . In the Avro Tournament of 1938, Fine tied for first place with Keres, and came in ahead of Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Euwe, reshevsky , and flohr . Considered the second greatest American chess player, second to former world champion Bobby fischer , Fine competed in several U.S. championships but never won. But such international chess greats as Capablanca, Flohr, and Botvinnik could not beat him. Fine's chess style was logical, precise, and energetic, and he was equally at ease both strategically and tactically. According to most players, Fine's only weakness was his volatile temperament. Soon after World War II, unable to properly support his family as a chess professional, Fine abandoned tournament chess to study psychology at the University of Southern California. He served with the United States Veterans Administration from 1948 to 1950 and at the Post-Graduate Center for Psychotherapy. He was professor of psychology at City College of New York from 1953 to 1958. Despite his preoccupation with his professional work, Fine continued to excel in "lightning" chess and won prizes in the American championships. He wrote in both his fields of interest. On psychology, he wrote the following: The Psychology of the Asthmatic Child (1948), Freud, A Critical Re-evaluation of his Theories (1962), History of Psychoanalysis (1979), The Intimate Hour (1979), The Healing of the Mind (1982), The Meaning of Love in Human Experience (1985), Narcissism, the Self, and Society (1986), The Forgotten Man (1987), Psychoanalysis around the World (1987), Troubled Men (1988), Love and Work (1990), and Troubled Women (1992). On the game of chess, he wrote: My Best Games of Chess (2 vols., 1927–38), Basic Chess Endings (1941), Chess, the Easy Way (1942), Ideas behind the Chess Openings (1943), The World's a Chessboard (1948), The World's Great Chess Games (1951), Lessons from My Games (1958), Great Moments in Modern Chess (1965), The Psychology of the Chess Player (1967), Practical Chess Openings (1973), Bobby Fischer's Conquest of the World's Chess Championship (1973), Fifty Chess Masterpieces, 1941–1944 (1977), and Reuben Fine's Best Games (2002). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Woodger, Reuben Fine: A Comprehensive Record of an American Chess Career, 1929–1951 (2004). (Gerald Abrahams / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)