Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966) is a

Jamaican-American Jamaican Americans are an ethnic group of Caribbean Americans who have full or partial Jamaican ancestry. The largest proportions of Jamaican Americans live in South Florida and New York City, both of which have been home to large Jamaican commu ...

chess player, author, and commentator. In 1999, he earned the

FIDE title FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

of Grandmaster (GM), making him the first black person to do so. Ashley is well known as a commentator for high-profile chess events. He also spent many years teaching chess. On April 13, 2016, Ashley was inducted into the

US Chess Hall of Fame The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a nonprofit, collecting institution situated in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It features chess exhibits, engages in educational outreach, and maintains a list of ...

Early life

Ashley was born in

St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. He attended Wolmer's Boys School in Jamaica, and then moved to the United States when he was 12. He went to

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of th ...

. Ashley graduated from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

(CCNY) with a B.A. in Creative Writing. While at City College, he represented the school in intercollegiate team competition. Ashley said he discovered chess in Jamaica, where his brother played chess with his friends. He got more serious about chess during high school, where he grew up in

Brownsville, Brooklyn Brownsville is a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsie ...

, and played in parks and clubs throughout

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Ashley coached the Raging Rooks of Harlem, and the Dark Knights (also from Harlem), both of which won national championships under his guidance.

Career

In 1992, Ashley shared the United States Game/10 chess championship with

Maxim Dlugy Maxim Alexandrovich Dlugy (born January 29, 1966) is an American chess player with the FIDE title of Grandmaster. He was born in Moscow, USSR, and arrived with his family in the United States in 1977. He was awarded the International Master t ...

. On March 14, 1999, Ashley beat Adrian Negulescu to complete the requirements for the Grandmaster title. This made him the first black chess Grandmaster.Hajela, Deepti
"Correction: Black Chessmaster story"
''The Associated Press'', 18 April 2016 In September 1999, Ashley founded the Harlem Chess Center, which has attracted such celebrities as Larry Johnson and

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awar ...

. Along with GM

Susan Polgar Susan is a feminine given name, from Persian "Susan" (lily flower), from Egyptian '' sšn'' and Coptic ''shoshen'' meaning "lotus flower", from Hebrew ''Shoshana'' meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose" and a flower in general), ...

, Ashley was named 2003 Grandmaster of the Year by the U.S. Chess Federation. In 2003, Ashley wrote an essay ''The End of the Draw Offer?'', which raised discussion about ways to avoid quick agreed draws in chess tournaments. In 2005, he wrote the book ''Chess for Success,'' relating his experiences and the positive aspects of chess. He was the main organizer for the 2005 HB Global Chess Challenge, with the biggest cash prize in history for an open chess tournament. In 2007, Ashley returned to his birth country of Jamaica and became the first GM to ever participate in a tournament there. The tournament was the Frederick Cameron Open. After sweeping a field consisting of several of Jamaica's top players, Ashley was upset in the final round by Jamaican National Master Jomo Pitterson. In 2008, Ashley was featured in an interview for the

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

documentary

Black in America Black In America is a multi-part series of documentaries hosted by reporter Soledad O'Brien on CNN. The series is about various issues regarding blacks (African-Americans) which includes panel discussions on issues facing the black community, and a ...

. He was shown during one scene in the film ''

Brooklyn Castle ''Brooklyn Castle'' (2012 in film, 2012) is a documentary film about Intermediate School 318, an inner-city public school in Brooklyn, New York. Where an after-school chess program, having both dedicated educators and a supportive community, has t ...

'' mentoring a young chess player. He was mentioned in the chess movie '' Life of a King'' starring

Cuba Gooding, Jr Cuba Mark Gooding Jr. (born January 2, 1968) is an American actor. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Emmy nomination. After his breakthrough role as Tre Styles in '' Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), he appea ...

. Starting in the Fall of 2012, Ashley was a Director's Fellow at the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

and, between 2013 and 2015, Maurice was also a Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Berkman Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...

in a joint fellowship at both Harvard's Berkman Center and the Media Lab at MIT. Currently, Maurice is a Research affiliate at the Media Lab at MIT. In 2013, Ashley announced he was planning the highest-stakes open chess tournament in history, Millionaire Chess Open. Its first edition took place October 9–13, 2014 in Las Vegas. In 2015, Maurice announced a partnership with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and Ascension, Your Move Chess. This program supports after school chess in the Florissant-Ferguson School District alongside other schools in the Saint Louis area. Longer term, the goal is to expand the program on a national level. In February 2016, a video of Ashley defeating a "trash-talking" amateur chess player in

Washington Square Park Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...

went viral. On April 13, 2016, Ashley was inducted into the

along with Chess Grandmaster

Gata Kamsky Gata Kamsky ( tt-Cyrl, Гата Камский, italics=no; russian: Гата Камский; born June 2, 1974) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion. Kamsky reached the final of the FIDE World Chess Cham ...

Commentator

Ashley has worked, and currently is working, as a chess commentator covering many events, including those of the

Grand Chess Tour The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is a circuit of chess tournaments where players compete for multiple prize pools. Major tournaments that have been featured in the Grand Chess Tour include Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup, and the London Chess Classic. ...

. He was one of the commentators of the two matches between world champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue that took place in 1996 and 1997. He provided commentary for the Kasparov vs. Anand World Championship match in 1995. In 2003, Ashley hosted

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's broadcast of Kasparov's match against X3D Fritz. He has also served as a commentator for the 2013–19 Sinquefield Cups, several US Chess Championships, and many other chess events.

Personal life

In 1993, Ashley married Michele Ashley-Johnson. Their daughter Nia was born the following year. Their son Jayden was born in 2002. The couple divorced in 2014. Maurice's sister is former world boxing champion

Alicia Ashley Alicia Ashley (born August 23, 1967) is a women's boxing participant who is the former WBC female world super bantamweight champion. Ashley is a Jamaican-American. Born in Jamaica, she moved to the United States at a young age. She is the younge ...

, and his brother is former world kickboxing champion Devon Ashley. He once said "African ontinent GMs do exist; but, according to the system of racial classification, I am the first Black GM in history... it matters, and doesn't matter, all at the same time."

Works and publications

Monographs

* Ashley, Maurice.
The End of the Draw Offer?
''The 65th Square.'' * Ashley, Maurice.
Chess for Success: Using an Old Game to Build New Strengths in Children and Teens.
' New York: Broadway Books, 2005. * Ashley, Maurice, and Graham Burgess. ''The Most Valuable Skills in Chess.'' London: Gambit, 2009. * Ashley, Maurice.
Ferguson and The Chess Game of Life.
'' Jet.'' October 15, 2015.

Multimedia

* Ashley, Maurice. ''Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess For Beginning and Intermediate Players.'' Torrance, CA: Davidson & Associates, 1997. Electronic resource. * "Maurice Ashley: Chess Grandmaster." Gates, Jr. Henry Louis. ''America Beyond the Color Line: Ebony Towers.'' New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group, 2009. Starts at 2:19. * Ashley, Maurice.
Working backward to solve problems.
' TEDYouth 2012. * Ashley, Maurice and Mobile MATCH, LLC.
Learn Chess! with Maurice Ashley.
'

Mobile phone app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

. 2012. * Ashley, Maurice.
Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation Lecture with GM Maurice Ashley: Chess for Football Players.
' Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. August 13, 2014. * Ashley, Maurice.
Grandmaster Maurice Ashley plays trash talking guy in Washington Square Park.
Outtake. '' The Tim Ferriss Experiment.'' February 16, 2016. The video went viral and has 1.4 million views on Maurice's YouTube channel. * Ashley, Maurice.
Maurice Ashley 2016 US Chess Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

References

External links

* * * * *
From Kings County, First Black Grandmaster

Maurice Ashley
at

Trevor Noah Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African-born comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and former television host. He was the host of ''The Daily Show'', an American late-night talk show and satirical news progra ...

's ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Maurice 1966 births Living people African-American chess players Chess grandmasters City College of New York alumni Jamaican emigrants to the United States American chess writers American male non-fiction writers People from Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica Writers from Brooklyn Berkman Fellows Twitch (service) streamers 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people