Jonathan Corbblah (born ) is a chess

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

from New York City, known for appearing on as many American

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

s as possible.

Personal life

Jonathan Corbblah was born in . As a child, he was almost held back in the

first grade First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade. Examples by r ...

because he was

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

; after his father—a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a ...

—spent the summer drilling academics non-stop, by the next academic year, he was ahead of his second-grade class. , he was married and living in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

. , he was coaching individuals and teams for national trivia championships, and taught ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

'' to schoolchildren.

Games and game shows

Corbblah learned to play chess at age six or seven. According to the

United States Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. US Chess administers the official national rating s ...

, since he began playing ranked matches in the late 1990s, Corbblah has a top

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

of 2262, earned in 2019. By 2014, he was a

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...

. Corbblah was eleven years old in 1990 when he appeared on his first

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

' ''Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?''. In December 2010, after his two days on ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

'', he told

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

that "I'm trying to go on as many possible game shows as I can"; he has appeared on at least seven. In summer 2019, he was a guest expert on several episodes of ''

Best Ever Trivia Show '' Master Minds ''is an American game show airing on the Game Show Network. The show debuted on June 10, 2019, under the title ''Best Ever Trivia Show'', hosted by Sherri Shepherd and regularly featuring Ken Jennings, Muffy Marracco, Jonathan C ...

'', and then as a master mind on several 2020–2021 episodes of ''Master Minds''. He has also won on ''Cash Cab''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Corbblah, Jonathan 1970s births 20th-century chess players 21st-century chess players contestants on American game shows educators from New York City entertainers from New York City Jeopardy! contestants living people people from New York City Scrabble players