Lessons from My Games. A Passion for Chess - 2a mano

Reuben Fine had a passion for chess; for twenty years he made a (meager) living as a chess grandmaster; he wrote popular and technical works on the game and, quitting chess for psychiatry, psychoanalyzed the chess player. It is, however, in the analysis of his own best games that he demonstrates his devotion and offers, along the way, a commentary on the great players he met and the rewards and perils of professional chess.

Lessons from My Games might have been called The Progress of a Chess Pilgrim; Fine recalls the high points of his chess life in chapters such as “I Go West,” “I Meet Alekhine,” “I Make a Mistake,” “I Beat Alekhine,” “I Meet the Russian Masters,” “I Meet the Younger Generation.” The progress is highlighted by close annotation of fifty games with the best: Alekhine, Capablanca, Reshevsky, Euwe, Botvinnik, Keres, Byrne, a roster of the top competition in the 1930’s and ‘40’s. Fine demanded accuracy and personal commitment from chess annotators; his own notations become self-contained, penetrating lessons on all aspects of play — the crucial openings, combinations, positional play, post-hypermodern theory and the endgame, accompanied by informative looks at blindfold chess, rapid-transit chess, chess publishing and politics.

Fine retired from active chess to refine his insight through psychiatry. This book combines thorough study of chess with frank, often humorous analysis and anectodes, making Lessons from My Games at once autobiography, anthology and delightful chess text. The lessons Fine learned the hard way, over the board for a living, are offered with utmost clarity for players of any level with a passion for chess.

Unabridged Dover (1983) republication of the edition published by David McKay Company, Inc., New York, 1958. 246 diagrams. 256pp. 5⅜ x 8½. Paperbound.

This rich book distills the experience gained during one of the most brilliant chess careers of our time - a career that has been distinguished equally in chess play and in chess analysis. Lessons from My Games combines the best of Reuben Fine the famous grandmaster, who has been a top contender in many of the century's greatest tournaments, with the best of Reuben Fine the writer, whose matchless books have been landmarks in chess history. Here are Fine's games with World Champions Capablanca, Alekhine, and Euwe, with Dake, Horowitz. Flohr, Kashdan, Tartakower, Lasker, Botvinnik, Reshevsky, and other masters. Here are scintillating games of ten-second blindfold chess, at which Fine is sensational. And perhaps most important for both the amateur and professional, here in generous profusion are Fine's incisive notes and comments on every game, with searching discussion of alternatives, blunders, brilliancies, and turning points. Here, indeed, are not only. the outstanding games of a great career but the lessons from the games, drawn as only Fine could draw them. All this would be enough, but this book offers something else as well, for enlivening the accounts of the matches and tournaments in which he played are Reuben Fine's personal impressions of his great antagonists. As an observer of human nature, he is entertaining and astute, and he shows how the ability to take a foe's psychological measure can help to win. Reuben Fine has been a member of three U.S. World Championship Teams. He tied for first prize with Keres in the great AVRO tournament of 1938 and has won the U. S. Speed Championship four times. Among his famous books are The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, The Middle Game in Chess, Basic Chess Endings, Practical Chess Openings, and his great and continuing best seller, Chess the Easy Way.

• Casa editrice Dover
• Codice 1183us
• Anno First published 1958. Dover Edition 1983. Reprint.
• Pagine 225
• Isbn 0-486-24429-6