Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin (born
March
11,
1964) is a
chess
Grandmaster. In 1998, he
was voted “Grandmaster of the Year” by the U.S. Chess
Federation.
, his Elo rating was 2576, making him the # 12 player in the US and the 214th-highest rated player in the world.
Benjamin
is a native of Brooklyn
, New York
, and grew up
in the Marine
Park
neighborhood. He graduated Yale University
in 1985.
At the age of 13 Benjamin broke
Bobby
Fischer’s record by becoming the youngest-ever U.S. Master. As
a junior player he won the National Elementary title (1976), the
National Junior High crown (1978), and the National High School
title (1980-81).
Other successes included the U.S. Junior Championship in 1980 and
1982, and the
U.S.
Open Chess Championship
in 1985. He earned the Grandmaster title a year later. Benjamin was
the
US Chess Champion in
1987, 1997, and 2000.
He won Saint John
Open I in 1988, and the 2000 Canadian Open Chess
Championship. He was inducted into the US Chess Hall of
Fame in Miami on May 2, 2008. He is the youngest inductee.
He co-authored
Unorthodox Openings along with
Eric Schiller, for Batsford publishers in
1987, is a frequent contributor to
Chess
Life magazine and other chess periodicals, and is a
regular commentator on the
Internet
Chess Club, usually presenting its
Game of the Week
webcast. His latest book, is
American Grandmaster: Four Decades
of Chess Adventures.
Benjamin was hired as a consultant by
IBM to
help with the
Deep Blue chess computer
that defeated
World Chess
Champion Garry Kasparov in
1997.
Benjamin appeared in the movies
Searching for Bobby Fischer
and "
Game Over:
Kasparov and the Machine.
Notable games
Benjamin beat grandmaster
Eduard
Gufeld in the U.S.
Open in 1998 in Hawaii
: 1.e4 c5
2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.Qd2 e6 8.Be2 Be7
9.O-O O-O 10.b3 Qa5 11.Bb2 Rd8 12.Rfd1 b5 13.cxb5 axb5 14.a3 Bb7
15.b4 Qb6 16.Qe1 Ba6 17.Qf1 Rab8 18.Rac1 d5 19.exd5 exd5 20.Na4
bxa4 21.Bxa6 Ne4 22.Bd3 Bd6 23.Rc2 Bf4 24.g3 Bh6 25.Re2 f5 26.Qh3
Rf8 27.Bb1 Rbe8 28.Ba2 Ne7 29.Ne5 Qb5 30.Rxe4 fxe4 31.Qe6+ Kh8
32.Qxh6 Nf5 33.Ng6+ Kg8 34.Rxd5 1-0
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
Search
