Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966) is a Jamaican and American chess player, author, and commentator. In 1999, he earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). 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.

Early life

Ashley was born in

St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. 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 a public specialized high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is on ...

. 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, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

(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 bordered by Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant and the subsection of ...

, and played in parks and clubs throughout

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. 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. 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, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young ...

. Along with GM

Susan Polgar Susan Polgar (born April 19, 1969, as Polgár Zsuzsanna and often known as Zsuzsa Polgár) is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. Polgár was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, a ...

, 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 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 Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

documentary Black in America. He was shown during one scene in the film '' Brooklyn Castle'' mentoring a young chess player. He was mentioned in the chess movie '' Life of a King'' starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. 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 MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

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

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 went viral. The incident was referenced in an episode of Billions where Ashley portrayed the chess hustler. On April 13, 2016, Ashley was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame along with Chess Grandmaster Gata Kamsky.

Commentator

Ashley has worked, and currently is working, as a chess commentator covering many events, including those of the Grand Chess Tour. 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 (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

'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, and their son Jayden in 2002. The couple divorced in 2014. Maurice's sister is former world boxing champion Alicia Ashley, and his brother is former world kickboxing champion Devon Ashley. He once stated "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. * Ashley, Maurice. ''Move by move: life lessons on and off the chessboard''. Chronicle Prism: San Francisco, 2024. .

Multimedia

* Ashley, Maurice.
Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess For Beginning and Intermediate Players
'. Torrance, CA: Davidson & Associates, 1997.

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

. * "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. 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's ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Maurice 1966 births Living people African-American chess players 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 American Twitch (service) streamers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen Wolmer's Schools alumni 21st-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century American sportsmen