Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin ( born March 11, 1964 in New York City ) is an American chess master.
He learned chess at the age of 8 years by his older brother Steven. At this time experienced the game by the success of Bobby Fischer a boom in the United States. Benjamin's talent was quickly recognized and encouraged. He received instruction from top players, including Julio Kaplan, and was a member of the Manhattan Chess Club. In 1976 he won the National Elementary Championship.
In 1980, he won the U.S. Junior Championship and became International Champion. At the World Youth Championship 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 became shared second place behind Evgeni Sveshnikov. 1986 FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title. In 1987 he took part in the inter-zone 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 Hawaiian Open in Honolulu, 1999 in Sydney, 2000 in Edmonton.
At the World Championship of FIDE in Groningen in 1997, he failed in the first round after tie-break to Vadim Zvyagintsev, in Las Vegas also in the first round after tie-break to Peter Heine Nielsen, 2000 in New Delhi in the second round in 1999 Rafael Leitão and 2001 in Moscow again in the first round after tie-break to Volodymyr Baklan. With the U.S. team he won the 1993 World Cup in Lucerne the team and also participated 1988-2006 in six Chess Olympiads. Together with his team he won in 1990 in Novi Sad, silver and bronze in 1996 in Yerevan. Benjamin played 1981-2006 at 23 U.S. championships, which he won three: 1987, 1997 and 2000.
December 1997 held Joel Benjamin in Germany, winning an international tournament Quick, before Igor Khenkin, Fritz 5, Tony Miles, Rustem Dautov, Alexander Csernyin and Péter Lékó. It was probably the strongest so far carried out in Germany, with a prize fund of 40,000 DM and 38 grandmasters. At the time when the play against computer was modern and interesting. As an assistant in the Deep Blue team, he worked during the competitions with Garry Kasparov in 1996 and 1997.
Benjamin is one of the strongest U.S. chess masters who are ( in contrast to the numerous immigrants in the U.S. Chess Elite) born in the United States. Benjamin current Elo rating is 2580 (as of April 2008) so that it is ranked 11 in the U.S.. In May 2008, he was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.