1. Ben Finegold had previously been nicknamed the "strongest International Master in the United States" until receiving his Grandmaster title in 2009.
19 Facts About Ben Finegold
1. 2.
Ben Finegold was recipient of the US Chess Trust's Samford fellowship.
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Ben Finegold was the grandmaster-in-residence of the Saint Louis Chess Club, and co-founded the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta.
4.
Ben Finegold was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a chess family, the son of chess master Ron Ben Finegold and his wife Rita.
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Ben Finegold learned the rules of chess at age 5 and received his first USCF rating at age 6.
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Ben Finegold graduated high school in June 1986 at the age of 16.
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Ben Finegold received the US Chess Trust's Samford fellowship in 1993.
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Ben Finegold tied for first place in the 1994 and 2007 US Open Chess Championships.
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Ben Finegold tied for first in the 2002 World Open, and tied for first in the 2005 and 2008 National Open Chess Championships.
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Ben Finegold was ranked as one of the top 40 players in the United States on the August 2013 USCF rating list.
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Ben Finegold has played in nine US Chess Championships: 1994,1999,2002,2005,2006,2008,2010,2011, and 2013.
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Ben Finegold has been a live commentator at the US Chess Championship, US Junior Chess Championship, Sinquefield Cup, and Chess World Cup.
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Ben Finegold frequently gave lively and often humorous instructional lectures at the Saint Louis Chess Club.
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Ben Finegold was the grandmaster-in-residence of the Saint Louis Chess Club until August 14,2012, where he filmed a number of chess YouTube videos.
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Ben Finegold's lectures are available on the YouTube channels of the Saint Louis Chess Club as well as the channel of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta and on Twitch.
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Ben Finegold has a Twitter account, with more than 21,900 followers as of March 2023.
17.
In July 1988, Ben Finegold moved to Brussels, Belgium, with Gina Lynne LoSasso, one of the top female players in the US Ben Finegold and Gina married in January 1989 in Hastings, England.
18.
Ben Finegold met his second wife, Kelly, on the Internet Chess Club.
19.
Ben Finegold is currently living with his third wife, Karen Boyd, a chess player with a background in programming.