The year 2004 will be remembered as a golden time for chess biographies. First out was the massive book by Jeremy Silman on Pal Benko for Siles Press and now McFarland & Company, Inc., has published two tremendous works on Amos Burn by Richard Forster and Reuben Fine by Aidan Woodger. The appearance of one of these books would have been cause enough for celebration, but to have all three show up in less than six months is pretty amazing. This review will cover one of the greatest American Grandmasters.

Ask a U.S. player to rattle off a list of his countryman who reached the level of World Championship contender before the age of 25 and the names of Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer and Gata Kamsky are sure to be mentioned. An impressive list of players no doubt, but not a complete one. Add Reuben Fine, who tied for first at AVRO 1938 at the age of 24, and you have things right. It's truly impressive how much Fine accomplished in a professional playing career that for all intents and purposes lasted less than a decade.

Aidan Woodger's splendid new biography adds tremendously to our knowledge of a player who was a prolific writer (Basic Chess Endings, The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, Chess the Easy Way, The Middle Game in Chess, etc.) but produced only a small book – Lessons from My Games: A Passion for Chess – about his own career. Fine's autobiography, which came out in 1958, contained 45 of his match and tournament games while ChessBase: Mega 2004 has not many more than 300 including blitz and simul games. Woodger has amassed 882! Most of the games are annotated, many in depth. The list isn't complete, you won't find Fine's missing games with Reshevsky and J. Bernstein from Pasadena 1932 or those from the mysterious match with Arnold Denker in 1934, but there is plenty of incredible stuff. I wonder how many chess players in Utah know that Fine won their state championship in 1940 and that all of his games have been preserved!

Woodger answered a question I had been trying to solve for some time. Researching the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club of San Francisco's history, I couldn't pinpoint when Reuben Fine was in San Francisco. The chess column in the San Francisco Chronicle had stopped in the early 1930s and the California Chess Reporter didn't start until the early 1950's so they were no help. I knew Fine was in Los Angeles in 1940 and 1945, but exactly when had he ventured North? The answer can be found on page 318 which lists Fine's cross-country tour in 1940 that brought him to California in September. The exact date of the exhibition isn't available, but his result of  +18, -0, =1 is.

The author acknowledges that more material on Fine is still to be found and hopes to add to this work in a future edition. Writing this book from England Woodger may not have had access to some of the more obscure U.S. state publications of the early 1930s like the short lived Texas Chess Knights and The Chess Reporter from Beverly Hills, but he did have helpers like Peter Lahde who found hard to find material in the pages of the Los Angeles Times. One great find was the Hollywood four-cornered tournament of 1940 where Fine bested Borochow, Woliston and Steiner.

Like all McFarland & Company, Inc. books this work on Reuben Fine is handsomely produced and designed to last forever. The layout of the 8 1/2 X 11 book is very easy on the eye while offering the reader pages filled with content. Highly Recommended.