Personalities / GM Maurice Ashley
Another World
Maurice Ashley is rethinking chess as a pro sport, as a business, and even the game itself.
By MACAULEY PETERSON
G
RANDMASTER MAURICE ASHLEY IS A chess professional in every sense of the word. He has been a teacher, trainer, commentator,
organizer, writer, publisher, digital entre- preneur, mentor, public speaker,—the list goes on—but just like so many American grandmasters (GMs), playing competitively is no longer a major part of the mix. In fact until the past year, Ashley’s break from competition spanned eight years. In May of this year he appeared on the cover of Chess Life, along with a band of Americans who took part in Iceland’s annual Reykjavik Open. It was supposed to be part of an effort to reignite his career over the board. But things have not gone according to plan.
Macauley Peterson: Reykjavik was only your sec- ond tournament since a sort of comeback in the last year. Have you played any more since then? MAURICE ASHLEY: I have not played at all since then. I can’t even call it a return—just those two tournaments I played in. And I have been so busy in the last couple of months, just focused on the book I’m writ- ing, focused on my daughter going to
30 November 2012 | Chess Life
college, my business running summer camps, and a new direction for my busi- ness ... There’s just been no time to sit down and look at some chess, which is somewhat depressing. But when I look at the tournament scene I also feel like I’m not
and you basically take home $400 for third place. (Laughing) I mean I really don't know what to say about that—you could work at McDonalds and do better in five days! Third place! It’s not like there was a ten-way tie for it—there was like a six- way tie maybe. And it’s $1,400?
Other sports love the underdog. Chess hates the underdog.
motivated because the U.S. scene is just so bad. After looking at the World Open I gotta say I’m just so depressed by where the scene is, that it’s very hard to get motivated to play any chess in the U.S.
I saw you had a comment about the World Open making you “want to cry.” I assume that’s because of the two way split [of first place], so that all these top GMs finishing only a half point back made almost nothing. Marc Arnold got a GM norm! He played like a 2600 player. All those guys who tied with him, they took home $1,400 not con- sidering their expenses, which probably was a grand [$1,000]. You play in the biggest tournament in the United States ...
It just rankles me know- ing that American chess is where it is. It’s really hard to want to jump back into a scene where there’s just no great advance. What are you playing—if you can’t play in the World Open,
what can you play?
In Europe usually the open tournaments have some kind of sponsorship [to pay for profes- sional players’ appearance fees]. Yes, and I think that does shield those tournaments in a big way because players already know they’re guaranteed some kind of money when they walk in the door and then they maybe can make a little bit on top of it. There’s no such luck in the U.S. My feeling though is that there is a gen- eral malaise around chess at the moment ... We have great players, we have great people at the top, we have wonderful per- sonalities, we have guys people should be fans of, and are actually fans of, but they
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