Joel Benjamin

Joel Benjamin, 2004
Association	United States
Born	March 11, 1964 New York City , United States
title	International Master (1980) Grand Master (1986)
Current  Elo rating	2506 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2620 (July 1993 and January 1994)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Joel Lawrence Benjamin (born March 11, 1964 in New York City ) is an American chess master .

Life

Benjamin learned to play chess at the age of 8 from his older brother Steven. At that time, the game was booming in the United States due to the success of Bobby Fischer . Benjamin's talent was quickly recognized and promoted. He received lessons from master players, including Julio Kaplan , and became a member of the Manhattan Chess Club .

successes

Joel Benjamin at the Junior World Chess Championship 1980 in Dortmund

In 1976 Benjamin won the National Elementary Championship . In 1980 he won the US Junior Championship and became an international champion . At the Youth World Cup in 1982 he was third. In 1983 he won a match against Nigel Short in London with 5.5: 1.5 (+4 = 3 −0). At the tournament in Hastings 1984/85 he was shared second behind Yevgeny Sveshnikov . 1986 awarded him FIDE the Grandmaster title . He won the US championship in 1987 together with Nick de Firmian . In 1987 he took part in the interzonal tournament in Szirák , but failed to qualify for the candidates' tournament . In 1988 he won in St. John's (Newfoundland) , 1989 in Cannes , 1996 the Hawaii Open in Honolulu , 1999 in Sydney , 2000 in Edmonton .

In the World Championship of FIDE in Groningen in 1997 he failed in the first round after tiebreaker to Vadim Zvyagintsev , 1999 in Las Vegas also in the first round after tiebreaker to Peter Heine Nielsen , 2000 in New Delhi in the second round Rafael Leitão and in 2001 in Moscow again in the first round after a tie-break to Volodymyr Baklan . With the US team he won the team world championship in Lucerne in 1993 and in 1997 came second in the team world championship; he also took part in the Chess Olympiad in 1988 , 1990 , 1992 , 1994 , 1996 and 2002 . With his team he won silver in Novi Sad in 1990 and bronze in Yerevan in 1996 . Benjamin played in 23 US championships between 1981 and 2006 , of which he won three: 1987, 1997 and 2000.

December 1997 Joel Benjamin stayed in Germany and won an international rapid tournament, ahead of Igor Khenkin , Fritz 5 , Tony Miles , Rustem Dautov , Alexander Csernyin and Péter Lékó . It was probably the strongest ever held in Germany, with a prize fund of 40,000 DM and 38 grandmasters. During the competitions with Garry Kasparov in 1996 and 1997 he worked as an assistant in the Deep Blue team .

Benjamin is one of the strongest US chess masters who (unlike the numerous immigrants in the US chess elite) were born in the USA. Benjamin is ranked 29th in the USA (as of January 2015), but he is listed as inactive because he did not play an Elo-rated game after the New York State Championship in Albany in August 2013 . In May 2008 he was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame .

In the United States Chess League he played for the New Jersey Knockouts since 2007 .

Works

• American Grandmaster: Four Decades of Chess Adventures. Everyman, London 2008, ISBN 978-1857445527 .
• Better Thinking, Better Chess: How a Grandmaster Finds His Moves. New in Chess, Alkmaar 2018, ISBN 978-90-5691-807-1 .
• Liquidation on the Chess Board: Mastering the Transition Into the Pawn Endgame. 3rd edition New in Chess, Alkmaar 2019, ISBN 978-90-5691-825-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ L. Steinkohl: Joel Benjamin and Nick de Firmian winners of the US championship . Schach-Echo 1988, issue 1, page 15 (report, games).
2. ↑ Joel Benjamin's results at the team world championships on olimpbase.org (English)
3. ↑ Joel Benjamin's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
4. ^ Benefit event Impulse - Muscle and Nerve Research Initiative, December 1997 in Cologne on TeleSchach

Web links

Commons : Joel Benjamin  - Collection of Images