Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin was hailed as a chess prodigy when he became a national master at the age of 13, breaking Bobby Fischer’s record for youngest-ever master. A three-time U.S. junior champion, he became a grandmaster in 1986. Benjamin won the U.S. Championship three times, in 1987, 1997, and 2000. He also holds a place in the history books for playing in a record 22 consecutive championships. He was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2008. His most famous gig was in helping the IBM Deep Blue computer team to defeat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Benjamin was the official grandmaster consultant for the 1997 rematch (Deep Blue lost to Kasparov in 1996). He trained the computer to think more positionally and thus augment computers’ traditionally awesome calculation skills.
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