Thank you for that reference. I don't have that volume and had only looked in the ones with Capablanca/Alekhine and Botvinnik/Smyslov. Not that it makes any difference, but I am happy to see that evaluation.

As such, it is hard to know Kasparov's true opinion of these players, but his initial rejection of them in the earlier books-choosing to highlight Geller, Polugaevsky and Keres-makes me think he sees them as lower grade.

As a makeshift solution, he lumped them all together in the start of the Fischer volume, highlighting Reshevsky, Najdorf, and Larsen, but giving Fine the biggest mini-section.

It was asked the source of my 'research'. Okay, fair enough. I have always had an interest in the careers of Fine and Reshevsky, particularly the time period before the war, the last period before the Soviets basically took over chess for a generation. I studied Fine's, Reshevsky's, and Botvinnik's games and books. By the late 1930's they all were increasing in strength. Alekhine was obviously declining, at least somewhat. Fine stated in his book that he felt he could have won a match against Alekhine, and felt Botvinnik and Reshevsky could have too. How was he justified in saying this? Well, he won the last three games he played against Alekhine! My final point is to look at the Sonas Chessmetrics ratings. In the absence of ELO ratings back then it's the most objective measure we have. In the period of 1939-41 (a time when any possible match would have taken place) Fine and Botvinnik are always rated number one or two in the world. Generally Botvinnik at the top spot, but several months it was Fine.

So that's my 'research'. You may disagree with my opinion, okay fine. But I think anyone can understand how I came to my opinion.

One final point, my comment was that I thought Fine would beat Alekhine. My comment wasn't to say I thought Fine was the best player in the world. For whatever reason, as <Shams> pointed out, Fine simply couldn't play against Reshevsky. I think Reshevsky was simply a greater fighter. I also question if Fine could have won against Botvinnik.

Exceprt from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...

<Discovered check is the dive-bomber of the chessboard.>

"In those days there was no money in chess. Dr. Fine had a family to support, and traveling around the world hustling for a few dollars, playing simultaneous exhibitions, writing chess books and annotating games for magazines was a precarious existence indeed. Then in 1939 came World War II, and for almost a decade international chess came to a halt. So Dr. Fine changed course, earning a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California in 1941 and setting up a successful practice as a lay analyst." (source:http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpa...)

I actually don't agree with Fine either. Nevertheless, let me play devil's advocate, for just a moment. As we know, the AVRO tournament was held to find a challenger to Alekhine. (Although Reshevsky in his book says that Alekhine hedged on that as the tournament was starting). Keres and Fine tied for first.

Here's the thing. When Alekhine died, for some reason, it was decided that <another> tournament needed to be run to declare a new world champion. Apparently, the 'wrong' guys had tied for first in the previous tournament. Fine didn't agree with this opinion. At a minimum, Fine thought that a match between himself and Keres could have been held to declare the world champion, going forward.