New “Chess Child”

New ‘chess child’ from USA
Hari Hara NandananHari Hara Nandanan, TNN | Aug 5, 2011, 02.33AM IST

CHENNAI: There is something about the American chess school that still nurses a dream; it continues to live the Bobby Fischer dream so it can’t digest the fact that there is not one GM there who comes anywhere close to him, either in talent or in rating.

In the 1990s, they found some talent in Joshua Waitzkin, son of Fred Waitzkin who wrote a book on his son’s early journey in chess. ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’ became a film, though Joshua ended up as one of the many International Masters.

Like Fred, who came to the world junior championship in Kozhikode in 1997 carrying his books, now the Chennai world junior has an American father with his book ‘Chess Child’ already written on his son Ray Robson, a 16-year-old Grandmaster with a promising rating of 2560 (waiting to touch 2580 in the next list). Unlike Joshua, Robson does not have to lean mostly on his father’s exploits or the backing of someone like Garry Kasparov, who was Fred’s friend.

Robson is probably the best homegrown American talent since Fischer (Gata Kamsky was born in Russia and migrated to the US 1989), waiting to break into the big league. He is here with his parents and coach Grandmaster Ben Finegold, who betrays a wry sense of humour when he puts Joshua and Robson in the right perspective. “American (chess) fathers might have discovered a parallel career for themselves,” he noted but quickly added, “Robson is a genuine talent and Joshua never had this rating at any time.”

More here.