Who is Josh Waitzkin?

Josh Waitzkin was born in New York City in December 1976. He started playing chess at the age of six in Washington Square Park, where he quickly fell in love with the game. Josh won the National Primary Championship in 1986, the National Junior High Championship in 1988 while in the fifth grade, and the National Elementary Championship in 1989. At the age of 11, he drew a game with World Champion Garry Kasparov in a simultaneous exhibition. Josh became a national master a few weeks after turning thirteen. He won the National Junior High Championship for a second time in 1990, and the next year, as an eighth-grader, he won the Senior High Championship and the US Cadet (under-16) Championship. At the age of 14 Josh captained a team of his friends to win the National Amateur Team Championship. At 16 Josh became an International Master. In 1993 Paramount released the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer about Josh's early life, based on his father's book of the same title. The film brought chess into the national focus and thrust Josh into international celebrity. That same year Josh was U.S. Junior (under-21) Co-Champion and in 1994 he won the U.S. Junior Championship outright and placed fourth in the Under-18 World Championship in Szeged, Hungary.

Where is he now?

Now 23, Josh spends his time studying the game he loves, teaching and coaching youths from the New York area, and preparing for major tournaments around the world. Josh is also a devoted student of world renowned Tai Chi Grandmaster William C.C. Chen. The study of Tai Chi Chuan and eastern philosophy has become intrinsic to Josh's evolution as a chess player and teacher, and he often brings ancient martial principles into his annotated games for Chessmaster. Josh recently won a national Tai Chi championship, making him one of the few living Americans with national titles in two sports. Josh is also an author, (penning his first book, Attacking Chess, as a senior in highschool), and an avid basketball player, fisherman, and free-diver, as well as a charismatic and inspirational speaker to both television and live audiences.

A Chess Ambassador and Avid Volunteer for Youth Causes

Josh has become a leader in the chess community and an ambassador for chess to people of all ages and skill levels. Many of the young American chess players of this generation were inspired to the game by his story, and Josh continues to touch children's lives, making appearances at schools, giving simultaneous exhibitions, and reaching out through Chessmaster to convey his message: "Follow your dream!" In 1994 Josh became a mentor for a group of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders at New York City's PS 116. Josh spent years coaching "his kids" in the game of chess, and his students have won numerous city and state titles and placed second in the 1998 National Elementary Championship. At that same event, Josh met Jonathan Wade, a child with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and was struck by his personal plight and unfettered passion for the game. He was inspired to become involved in the 1st Annual Duchenne Parent Project Scholastic Chess Tournament in Memphis Tennessee, and has since become The National Spokesperson for the Parent Project in an attempt to fight the deadly disease. Josh has spent his young adulthood attempting to be a counterforce to what he calls "the gradual decay of aesthetic quality in America." Through chess he attempts to communicate "a love for the process of growth as opposed to the end result, an appreciation of the question as opposed to the answer, and a presence to the small moments of this life that are so precious and so fleeting."

Chessmaster

Josh has been working with the Chessmaster team since early 1997. His influence on Chessmaster since day one has been to take on the difficult task of conveying the passion and artistry of chess through a computer program. Josh's audio annotated games, the Kids Room, and his new endgame course, all add a unique human dimension to the world's best-selling personal computer chess program.