1. Joel Lawrence Benjamin was born on March 11,1964 and is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster.
20 Facts About Joel Benjamin
1. 2.
Joel Benjamin was in the class for "intellectually gifted children".
3.
Joel Benjamin is a New Jersey resident, married to Deborah, and they have two children, Aidan and Amy.
4.
Joel Benjamin graduated from Yale University with a major in history in 1985.
5.
Joel Benjamin became the youngest-ever US chess master at age 13, a record previously held by Bobby Fischer.
6.
Joel Benjamin won the US Junior Championship again in 1982, and the US Open Chess Championship in 1985.
7.
Joel Benjamin was the US Chess Champion in 1987, in 1997, and in 2000.
8.
Joel Benjamin won the Saint John Open I in 1988, and the 2000 Canadian Open Chess Championship.
9.
Joel Benjamin was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in Miami on May 2,2008.
10.
Joel Benjamin is known for playing offbeat openings such as the Black Knights' Tango, and for converting very small advantages into a win.
11.
Joel Benjamin tied for first place in the 1986 and 1987 US Masters Chess Championships.
12.
Joel Benjamin 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.
13.
Joel Benjamin was the editor-in-chief and founder of the now defunct magazine Chess Chow from 1991 to 1994.
14.
Joel Benjamin's book American Grandmaster: Four Decades of Chess Adventures was a biographical work about his chess career.
15.
Joel Benjamin is a frequent contributor to Chess Life Online articles on the USCF website.
16.
Joel Benjamin was hired as the official grandmaster consultant by IBM to help with the Deep Blue chess computer that defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.
17.
Joel Benjamin appeared in the movies Searching for Bobby Fischer and Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine.
18.
Joel Benjamin beat grandmaster Eduard Gufeld in the US Open, Hawaii 1998:.
19.
In January 2025, Joel Benjamin played an 8-game match on Lichess receiving knight odds against the neural net chess engine Leela Chess Zero with a specially trained network for playing at this handicap.
20.
Joel Benjamin won the match, scoring two wins, one loss, and five draws.