Maurice Ashley biography

 Maurice Ashley biography

Maurice Ashley, (born March 6, 1966, St. Andrews, Jamaica), first African American to earn an International Grandmaster chess title.

Ashley moved to Brooklyn, New York, together with his household when he was 12 years previous. He quickly took up chess and excelled on the recreation, changing into a nationwide grasp in 1986 and an International Master in 1993. From 1991 to 1997 Ashley was the chess director of the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, Inc., the place he led groups to a few scholastic nationwide championships—three of his gamers additionally received the person nationwide championships for his or her age teams. In 1997 Ashley refocused his efforts on enhancing his personal chess and spent the following two years finding out and enjoying full-time in worldwide tournaments with a view to fulfill the mandatory grandmaster “norms.” After incomes his International Grandmaster title in 1999, Ashley returned to teaching and neighborhood motion by changing into the primary director of the Harlem Chess Center (closed in 2002 as a result of lack of funds).

Ashley was a frequent tv and Internet chess commentator, reporting on the Garry Kasparov v. Nigel Short world championship match (1993), Kasparov v. IBM Deep Blue matches (1996 and 1997), and Kasparov v. X3D Fritz (2003), amongst different chess occasions. He additionally held posts on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Ashley was the writer of tutorial CD-ROMs, together with Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess (1996) and Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess for Beginning and Intermediate Players (1997). He additionally wrote Chess for Success (2005), an autobiographical ebook that explores the sport’s optimistic affect on younger folks.