CHESS Magazine: The story of Fred and Bruce

A Story of Fred and Bruce

By Bob Jones

Back in 1997, after early retirement from teaching, I found myself being drawn into the world of old chess books. Not that that was what I’d originally intended – it was just the way things were developing.

One day, late in the year, I got a phone call from a young lady in London, asking if I’d be interested in a collection of books she was having to clear out from the house of a recently deceased elderly relative. It was a long way from Exmouth, but it sounded an interesting proposition and at that time I was keen to build up a credible stock, so I agreed. She gave me an address near Hammersmith Bridge and the London Wetland Centre in Barnes.

I found the house without problem, and the lady led me into the kitchen, where, on the table, were about 50 or 60 books and a cardboard box of odds and ends. I had a quick look through them to ascertain their condition, quality and potential interest to collectors, and offered her what I considered to be a fair sum. She was clearly surprised at the amount and accepted immediately.

It was only on the way back that it occurred to me that I hadn’t even asked the woman her name nor whose books they were. Back home, I looked through the books again and was generally pleased with the acquisition, and almost as an afterthought I poked through the unpromising-looking contents of the box and found, among other things, a large envelope stuffed with typed or photocopied articles on Morphy and two letters addressed to the book owner. Only then did I realise I’d just purchased the chess library of Bruce Hayden, and the presence in the pile of two copies of his book Cabbage Heads and Chess Kings suddenly made sense.

The two letters were as interesting as the books, and reveal a little of both the writers and recipient. One was a rather terse note from Harry Golombek in reply to a Hayden suggestion, to the effect – Dear Hayden, Yes, a book of games by so and so would a good idea, but I’m too busy on another book, and anyway the Americans could do one much more quickly than I could hope to do.

The other was a beautifully typed letter on blue airmail paper, which is worth recalling verbatim.

I haven’t seen Hayden’s original letter, but one doesn’t need to – the reply says it all. The quotation in question is “Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy” which forms the last line of Reinfeld’s biographical introduction to Tarrasch’s games.

Fred Reinfeld (1910-1964) was one of the most prolific writers on chess ever and to this day the club player can learn much from his well-chosen examples and clarity of prose.

People were/are always divided as to the value or status of Reinfeld’s many books, an issue that was faced squarely and with some humour by S. Morrison in his BCM obituary.

“Fred Reinfeld, the most indefatigable and prolific of all chess authors, died of a virus infection at his home in Long Island USA on 29th May. He was 54.

I have always thought it strange that for every ten chess writers who cater for the advanced student, there is only one for the woodpusher. And despite the fact that beginners must always outnumber top boards. If, in this ratio of 10:1 I personify the ‘1’ in the form of Fred Reinfeld, I don’t suppose anyone will be surprised.

When I last met Reinfeld in 1962 and taxed him about how many books he had written altogether, he had no idea. At the time of his death, his output was still going strong. There were books on how to win when you have the black pieces, how to win with the white pieces, how to win when you are ahead and how to fight back when you are not! His greatest stumbling block in recent times must have been the selection of suitable titles for his latest books, for he had almost exhausted all the usual possibilities. He had also published books on coins, geology and outer space.

Most authors launch themselves straightway upon publishers. Fred Reinfeld’s first literary efforts were duplicated stapled sheets that he hawked from shop to shop in the depressed thirties, long before he had either fame or fortune. He was a strong player who, in various club championships, had taken games from Reshevsky, Fine, Denker and Horowitz, but knew he would never be world class.

Criticism about Reinfeld’s approach always seemed to come from the stronger type of player to whom his pages were never directed”.

I can’t find any obituary by B. H. Wood in CHESS, though he continued to publish reviews of his new titles for years after Reinfeld’s death.

As for Hayden himself, he was born in Glasgow on 7th April 1907 and died a few weeks before my visit to his house in 1997. He was christened Hendy Bruce Hayden, but the first name was never used. Although largely forgotten today, he was in his prime in the 1950s, chess correspondent for The Times and a great raconteur of chess tales, sometimes blurring the facts in order to enhance a good story (and who hasn’t done that from time to time?).

For example, at the 23rd Hastings Congress in 1948 Hayden brightly claimed to have won the Brilliancy Prize ahead of the likes of Szabo, Grob, Fairhurst, Alexander, Golombek et al. Quite true, but the fact that he was in the Premier Reserves B, while they were not, was blithely skipped over. In fact, even in that section he only came 8th/10 with 2½ points. So how did this come to be? Apparently, that year the Congress Committee had devised a new system of added points for entrants in the lower sections so that everyone should get a chance of the 2 guinea prize on offer, and he won this fair and square. Here is that game with notes by Julius du Mont from The Field.

In 1960 Hayden gathered many of these tales together to create his legacy to chess literature in the form of his book, Cabbage Heads & Chess Kings. The following position is from 1952. White is a piece down and has three pieces en prise. Should he resign – or what?

The above article appeared in the January 2017 issue of the British magazine CHESS

CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read. The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organises the London Chess Classic.

CHESS is mailed to subscribers in over 50 countries. You can subscribe from Europe and Asia
at a specially discounted rate for first timers here, or from North America here.

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