American Grandmaster

Joel Benjamin is one of the most prominent faces in the history of US chess. At thirteen years of age he broke Bobby Fischer's record as the youngest ever national master, and this was followed by countless tournament successes. Perhaps most famously, in 1997 he hit the headlines when he became the chess consultant for IBM's Deep Blue computer, which made history by beating World Champion Garry Kasparov in an epic encounter. Joel Benjamin is an American Grandmaster, a 3-time US Champion, 6-time member of the Olympiad team, and was a double gold medallist at the 1993 World Team Championship. In 2007 he plays in his 24th consecutive US Championship, an incredible record that will prove extremely difficult to beat.