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Fred Reinfeld was born in New York City on January 27, 1910. His father,
Barnett Reinfeld, came from Poland. His mother, Rose (Pogrozelsky) was from
Romania. Fred had a sister, Lily (Lena Blake), born in 1912.
Reinfeld wrote over 100 chess books in his lifetime, and perhaps over 260 books total.
He also wrote about geology, history, numismatics, checkers, and astronomy. He sold
more chess books than any other author in history.
When did Fred Reinfeld first learn how to play chess? In the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sep
3, 1931, it stated that the newly crowned New York State chess champion, Fred Reinfeld,
learned the game of chess at age 9. This was also repeated in American Chess Bulletin,
Sep-Oct 1931, where it further states that Reinfeldthen became interested in checkers. In
the Human Side of Chess, he stated that he learned at the age of 11. In chapter one
of How to Be a Winner at Chess, he stated that he “first learned to play chess as a
youngster of 12.” In Dr. Lasker’s Chess Career he stated that he “learned the moves as a
high school youngster, about three months before the great New York Tournament of
1924.” He would be 14 at that time.
Around Christmas of 1923, Reinfeld visited many libraries in search of chess
literature. He soon had a collection of over 2,000 games that he copied.
In 1924, Reinfeld earned a place on his high school chess team.
In early January, 1926, after meeting Carlos Torre-Repetto (1905-1978) at the offices of
the American Chess Bulletin, Reinfeld joined the Marshall Chess Club.
In 1929, Reinfeld won the U.S. Intercollegiate Chess Championship. He attended New
York University, then the College of the City of New York (CCNY), majoring in
accounting.
In 1929, Reinfeld tied for 6th-8th place in the 13th Marshall Chess Club championship,
won by Rudolf Smirka (1887-1947).
In November 1930, Reinfeld took 4th-5th in Preliminary A of the 14th Marshall Chess
Club championship, but did not qualify for the finals, won by Arthur Dake (1910-2000).
In July-August, 1931, Reinfeld lost a match against Reuben Fine in New
York. Reinfeld lost three, won two, and drew one game.
He won the 53rd New York State Chess Association Championship at Rome, New York
at the age of 21. The event was held from August 17 to August 22, 1931. He won 6
games, drew 5 games, and lost none. Reuben Fine took 2nd place. At the
time, Reinfeld was still a student at CCNY, along with Reuben Fine. He later became a
competent accountant via coursework at Columbia and NYU. Further part-time
employment was found in all kinds of editing jobs.
In 1931-32, Reinfeld took 2nd place in the 15th Marshall Chess Club Championship, won
by Reuben Fine. Reinfeld defeated Fine in their individual game.
In 1932, he married his fiancée, Beatrice (1912-1979). She was a secretary at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York. He had two children. His son, Don, was born in
1942, and his daughter, Judith, was born in 1947. His son later became a veteran cellist
with the Rochester, New York, Philharmonic Orchestra. Don was a guest speaker during
the induction ceremony of Fred Reinfeld at the U.S. Hall of Fame in 1996.
In July-August 1932, Reinfeld took 3rd place in the 33rd Western Chess Association (US
Open) championship, behind Fine and Reshevsky. The event was held in
Minneapolis. Reinfeld defeated Reshevsky and drew with Fine in their individual games.
In August 1932, Reinfeld was invited to the Pasadena International, held from August 15
to Auguest 28. He tied for 7th-10th place. The event was won by Alekhine, followed
by Kashdan. Reinfeld drew both Alekhine and Kashdan in their individual games, and
defeated Reshevsky.
In 1932, Reinfeld began writing on chess. He researched and wrote as many as 13 books
a year. He also found a position as part-time chess instructor for the adult-education
sections of Columbia and NYU. He gave chess courses, of various levels of difficulty,
for many years. They were very popular. Does anyone know of anybody who took his
courses?
In the 1933, Reinfeld started his own publishing house called the Black Knight Press. In
his tiny apartment in the Bronx, he produced and printed his own material. He started
with correspondence courses and pamphlet-style chess books for people who wanted to
learn the game.
In 1933, Reinfeld became a contributing editor of Chess Review, then an associate
editor. He did many of the book reviews for the magazine, as well as annotating many
games. He also translated several German articles into English and had them
published. In 1945, he became executive editor of Chess Review.
From May 6-16, 1933, Reinfeld participated in the United States Team Tournament
qualifier, held in New York. He tied for 7th-8th place. Fine, Dake, and Simonson all
qualified from this event to represent the USA at Folkestone in the Chess
Olympiad. Reinfeld drew with all the qualifiers in their individual games, but only won
one game in the event.
In August 1933, Reinfeld won the 55th New York State Chess Championship in Syracuse,
New York, ahead of Denker and Fine. He won 8 games, drew 3 games, and lost no
games. The event was held from August 21 through August 26.
In 1933, he wrote his first books, Book of the Bled Tournament with
Isaac Kashadan and Chess Strategy and Tactics with Irving Chernev.
In 1933-34, Reinfeld tied for 2nd with Alexander Kevitz in the 17th Marshall Chess Club
Championship. Reuben Fine won the event.
In 1934, Reinfeld placed 9th-10th in the 56th New York State Championship, won
by Reshevsky. The event was held in Syracuse, New York.
In 1934-35, Reinfeld won the 18th Marshall Chess Club Championship.
In August 1935, Reinfeld took 4th place in the 57th New York Championship, held in
Binghamton, New York. Reinfeld scored 5-3. Isaac Kashdan, playing in the New York
State Championship for the first time, won the event with 7 wins and 1 draw.
In March 1936, Fred Reinfeld failed to qualify for the 1st U.S. championship when he
took 4th in the Marshall Chess Club Qualifying Group. Denker and Weaver Adams
qualified. Reinfeld drew with both qualifiers in their individual games.
In August 1936, Reinfeld played in the 37th American Chess Federation Congress in
Philadelphia. He took 4th place in one of the section qualifiers and failed to make it into
the finals, which took the first three places in the section qualifier (Kashdan, Denker,
and Kupchik).
In 1937, Reinfeld took 4th-5th in the Marshall Chess Club Championship, won by Frank
Marshall. Reinfeld defeated Marshall in their individual game, Marshall’s only loss.
In March 1938, Reinfeld qualified for the 2nd U.S. Championship Tournament in New
York after winning his section with a 7-2 score. After missing qualification by a half
point in the two previous years, Reinfeld finally qualified.
In the 1938 U.S. Championship, Reinfeld tied for 12th-14th place. The event was won
by Reshevsky. Reinfeld drew with Reshevsky in their encounter. He fell for a mate in
one and twice put pieces en prise in simple positions. Reinfeld blamed his poor standing
due to outside work during the tournament, making concentration difficult. At the time,
he was contributing to The Chess Review, completing one chess book, and preparing for a
new chess book.
In 1938, Reinfeld advertised chess lessons for 25 cents at his home in the Bronx and was
willing to answer personal problems of sponsors.
In 1939, Reinfeld took 9th-10th place in the 1939 Marshall Chess Club Championship
with only 1 win, 2 losses, and 7 draws. His win was against Frank Marshall.
In July 1939, Reinfeld took 2nd place, behind Milton Hanauer, in the Ventnor City (New
Jersey) Invitational Masters’ Tournament. He won 6 games, drew 6 games, and lost no
games. He started out with 5 wins and 1 draw in the first 6 games.
In the 1930s, Reinfeld ran an ad in Chess Correspondence magazine offering to annotate
any chess game for a dollar.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Reinfeld was the only American who had a plus score
against Reshevsky. Reinfeld beat Reshevsky twice and had three draws and no losses.
In 1940, Reinfeld qualified for the 3rd U.S. Championship from the Preliminaries.
Reinfeld took 8th-11th place in the 3rd U.S. Championship with1 win, 2 losses, and 13
draws. The tournament was won by Reshevsky. Reinfeld drew his game
with Reshevsky in their individual encounter.
In 1941, Reinfeld ghosted My Fifty Years of Chess by Frank Marshall. Reinfeld was paid
$100 to write the book, which he did in three weeks.
In July 1941, Reinfeld took 2nd in the third annual Ventnor City Invitational Tournament,
behind Jacob Levin. Reinfeld preserved his record as the only player to in the Ventnor
City tournaments without the loss of a single game.
In February 1942, he tied for 1st place with Sidney Bernstein at the Manhattan Chess
Club championship. Reinfeld won 6 games, drew 4 games, and lost no games. He
appeared on the cover of the February 1942 issue of Chess Review with Bernstein.
Reinfeld stopped playing competitive chess by the end of 1942 and concentrated writing
chess articles and books. He abandoned tournament chess because it was impossible to
earn a living at it.
In 1948, Reinfeld wrote his first non-chess book, an abridgment of Oliver Twist by
Charles Dickens.
In 1948, Reinfeld had a finished manuscript called Dr. Lasker’s Chess Career, Part II,
but couldn’t find a publisher to print it.
In the 1940s, the Brooklyn Public Library listed over 250 books on chess alone, authored
by Reinfeld. Many of them were duplicated, stapled sheets of paper, which he peddled
from bookstore to bookstore during the Great Depression. Because of his phenomenal
memory and writing ability, he was able to write most of his manuscripts directly from
rough notes instead of having to prepare a preliminary draft. His editors seldom revised
more than a few words.
In the 1950s, his publisher at Sterling Publishing Company was David A. Boehm, who
used the pseudonym Robert V. Masters when he co-wrote with Reinfeld . His other main
publishers were David McKay Publishing, Pitman, Simon & Schuster, Collier, Prentice-
Hall, Dover, and Bell.
In 1950, Reinfeld said, “In those early days I played and wrote seriously – and got
nothing for it. When I pour out the mass-produced trash, the royalties coming in.”
In 1950, Reinfeld managed the USA-Yugoslav Radio Match.
In December 1950, the first USCF rating list appeared in Chess Review. Reinfeld was the
6th highest rated player in the United States, with a USCF rating of 2593, but inactive (he
had not played a tournament game since 1942). The top players were Reuben Fine
(2817), Samuel Reshevsky (2770), Alexander Kevitz(2610), Arthur Dake (2598), and
Albert Simonson (2596).
Between 1950 and 1964, Reinfeld became an expert on numismatics and wrote 14 books
on coin collecting. He authored 5 popular science books.
In 1951, the second USCF rating list appeared. Reinfeld was no longer on the rating list
due to inactivity in chess tournaments.
In 1955, Reinfeld most likely began using the pseudonym Edward Young, which first
appeared in Chess Review, April 1955. Edward Young appeared as an author of several
chess books.
By the end of 1955 he had written more than 50 chess books. At the time, he was on the
staff of New York University, where he taught chess to hundreds of students yearly.
In 1958, he was on the staff at the School of General Education of New York University
as an instructor in chess.
In 1959 his book, The Great Dissenters, won the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award
“for special excellence in portraying America’s past.”
Fred’s son, Don, wrote, “As I was growing up, I was always astounded by my father's
knowledge and deep understanding of many subjects. He was always eager to answer
my questions about politics, economics, history, science, philosophy. He had read
widely in literature, and I later came across letters he had written to my mother before
their marriage explaining how to read Proust and listen to Italian opera; they loved the
open-air concerts at Lewissohn Stadium. As a teenager I was astounded when I was
forced to conclude that he remembered absolutely everything he read and every move of
every game he had ever played or perused when browsing through chess journals. He
worked all the time, every day, from right after breakfast until late at night. He would
take breaks for walks and for reading and listening to classical music, his other great
passion. In the late 1950's he finally indulged his love for music and started taking piano
lessons. I'm afraid his talents there were no greater than mine for chess.”
In 1964, the American newspaper columnist Len Lyons (1906-1976) listed
Fred Reinfeld as the most prolific of all living authors.
He died at the age of 54 years and 4 months on May 29, 1964 at Meadowbrook Hospital
in East Meadow, New York. Did he die of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and where was
the cause of death ever reported? It does not show up in the obiturary in The New York
Times, or by Jack Battell in Chess Review, and no obituary was given
for Reinfeld in Chess Life. The British Chess Magazine, July 1964, said that he died of a
virus infection.
In 1996, Reinfeld was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.
Reinfeld wrote several articles for the World Book Encyclopedia. He was author of a
chess program in the form of a teaching machine for the Encyclopedia Britannica. He
was also a consultant for the Random House American College Dictionary.
Reinfeld's chess victories include wins against Samuel Reshevsky (twice),
Arnold Denker, Reuben Fine, I.A. Horowitz, Edward Lasker, Frank
Marshall, Pinkus, Santasiere, and Simonson. He also drew against Alexander Alekhine.
Reinfeld was a ghost writer for several authors, including Sammy Reshevsky and Frank
Marshall. Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld ghosted most of the important American
chess books between 1930 and 1950, including Marshall’s best games.
In 1965 Fred Reinfeld's library was given to New York University by his widow, Mrs.
Beatrice Reinfeld. He had over 1,000 books on chess and over 260 books that he had
written,
Fred Reinfeld was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 1996. He was
the 26th person to be so inducted, and the first to be inducted primarily for his
writing. He may have done more to popularize American chess in the 20th century than
in any other person. Through 1989, over 50 of his chess books have been reprinted after
his death.
Reinfeld has been quoted as saying, "The pin is mightier than the sword" and "Short of
actual blunders, the lack of faith in one's position is the chief cause of defeat."
Chess Books by Fred Reinfeld: