Middle Game in Chess

I borrowed every book written by Reuben Fine from the local college library, to see if I might model my playing after him. (I studied Fischer, but I'm no Bobby.) I so enjoyed this book, I decided to buy it. I agree that this version is flawed with typos in move lists and diagrams, but its re-vamped organization allows the pertinent info to flow more freely.I always seemed to get lost in my games around the middlegame. This book is so full of recognizable patterns, that I can see my way more clearly now. I especially enjoyed learning the proper way to conduct an attack on the castled king using a pawn storm.I highly recommend this book for intermediate players, like myself.

I used to own a copy from the earlier printing of this book, and it was one of my favorites. I passed it along to a friend who was searching for improvement in his game. While I agree with the previous reviewer that this book lacks the writing style Fine used in previous books, for the serious student, this is THE textbook on how to play the middlegame. It covers combinations, attacks, how to analyze a position, how to make the most of different types of advantages, how to defend, and the transitional points between the opening & the middlegame and between the middlegame & the endgame. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Reuben Fine, he was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, chess player in the world in the 1930's. He tied for first with Keres in the celebrated AVRO tournament of 1938, possibly the strongest tournament in history (certainly in the top 3).My only reservation with this printing consists of the numerous typos. The language was changed to algebraic, but in the conversion an incredible number of errors were made in the move lists. I would recommend this book to the player seriously interested in improving their middlegame play (club players rated 1400 - 1800), but with the warning that you WILL be confused by many of the examples and the moves given for those positions. Perhaps, if you have a good games database, you can locate the games on your own and use your own game copies with Fine's explanations.

Reuben Fine was one of the world's leading chess authors - as well as being a strong master himself -and was extremely influential and well-known. I bet if you asked 100 Grandmasters and authors, 98 would've heard of Fine. In this book, Fine emphasizes developing in the player the ability to analyze a position and to proceed accordingly. There are sections on mating attacks; combination play; how to handle superior positions, even positions; continuations of the openings; and transition to the end game. Maybe many of us think that the old books are outdated and stodgily written. Not so with Fine. I think that this is a clearly-written tutorial book, excellent for learning to plan, and more "solid" than say Silman's "How To Reassess Your Chess." If you see this available anywhere, BUY IT!