Fred Reinfeld was born in New York City, and lived his entire life within its metropolitan area.
[1] Reinfeld learned chess in his early teen years and played for his high school team.
[8] In 1933, he finished all eleven rounds undefeated, ahead of Fine, Anthony Santasiere, and Arnold Denker.
[2] He was invited to the very strong Pasadena International tournament and placed 7-10th; the winner was world champion Alexander Alekhine.
During his career, he won tournament games against grandmasters Reshevsky (twice), Fine, Frank Marshall, and Denker, and drew against world champion Alexander Alekhine.
[12] Reinfeld wrote his first book about a subject other than chess in 1948—an abridged version of Charles Dickens' famous work Oliver Twist.
[2] Reinfeld also wrote books on a number of other subjects, including checkers (How to Win at Checkers), numismatics (Coin Collector's Handbook), philately (Commemorative Stamps of the U.S.A.), geology (Treasures of the Earth), history (Trappers of the West), medicine (Miracle Drugs and the New Age of Medicine), physics (Rays Visible and Invisible), political science (The Biggest Job in the World: The American Presidency), and jurisprudence (The Great Dissenters: Guardians of Their Country's Laws and Liberties).
Reinfeld's 19 numismatic works were the subject of an article by Leonard D. Augsberger in the November–December 2000 issue of Rare Coin Review.
[2] On May 29, 1964, Reinfeld died at the age of 54 in East Meadow, New York,[15][16] reportedly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.
[17] In 1965, his widow Beatrice Levine donated his library to New York University; it contained more than 1,000 books, of which he had written about 260.