Chess imprisoned me with its beauty; now my life’s mission is to reproduce myself: Maurice Ashley

Maurice Ashley’s sister Alicia is a former World boxing champion. His brother Devon is a former World kickboxing champion. But he chose chess to make his mark in the world, and created history: in 1999, he became the world’s first-ever Black Grandmaster. During the World Chess Championship match between Ding Liren and D. Gukesh, Ashley was a familiar face — and voice — as the television presenter and moderator at the press conferences. Excerpts from an interview the Jamaica-born American Grandmaster gave The Hindu at Sentosa, the small island off the southern coast of mainland Singapore that hosted the World Championship:

How do you look back at your life as a chess player, as someone who broke through the glass ceiling?

I learnt chess in Jamaica as an eight-year-old, or maybe I was nine. I remember surprising everybody by discovering the four-move checkmate. I just figured out the scholar’s mate. But I didn’t do any chess again for another six years. When I was 14, two years after we moved to the United States, I saw a friend of mine in school playing chess. And then I saw a chess book in the library and the love affair started. I remember just seeing the strategies and tactics. The positions, the diagrams. I played with my friend. He crushed me again. I taught myself chess. I had no coach until I was 21 and my rating was 2400. I just studied like a complete maniac. I learnt chess history and about all the world champions. I became like a PhD student of the game.

At that time, were there many from the African-American community that played chess?

There were, thankfully, people who played in the park. And a group of men — they called themselves the Black Bear School — who played chess. They were the reason I became 2400, because they were all 2200. I met them at the park in New York, and at home, one of their homes. I ended up beating this guy who knew them. And he was so mad, he wanted to humiliate me by taking me to this group. Little did he know that I was tough enough that I could fight a couple of them in the group, but most of them were better than me. So I ended up playing against these men, and they became essentially my sparring partners. They would crush me, the top ones. And I would go home and study some more, then come back. I just kept going. As long as there existed people who were better than me, I wanted to get better.

When did you start thinking of becoming a Grandmaster?

When I was 14. I read about these Grandmasters in books, and I just wanted to be among the best. It didn’t matter the obstacles in my way or not having any trainers when I was a kid or whatever. The game caught me and imprisoned me with its beauty. So it was a long journey to the Grandmaster title. I was elated, of course, and relieved more so because I had been trying for so long. I didn’t get it until I was 33. It only taught me one of the biggest lessons I have ever had in my life, and it is in my current book, Move by Move, that I arrived at the Grandmaster title and became an advanced beginner. You thought you were there somehow, and then you realised, oh my god, the ocean is bigger than you thought it was.

Did it matter to you that you were the first Black person to do it?

All the Black people around me were saying, ‘Do it for us’. It is easy to be Black, I am Black. That wasn’t the problem. But to become a Grandmaster is hard. I knew a lot of people would be happy, and they were when I finally accomplished it. But my biggest problem with my accomplishment is that others haven’t followed in my footsteps in great numbers. The way India has followed Anand. And I recognise that it took a while for such a great champion like Anand even to move the needle in India.

So I should give myself some grace in having not seen the rush that I would have expected of young Grandmasters. More has to be done. And I am doing more now, actively, myself. I am giving free lessons to young prodigies that I think have potential.

I have put a fellowship together, the Maurice Ashley Chess Fellowship in the US. Yeah, I started that just this November to find money for young, talented Black kids. In Jamaica, I convinced the government to give a quarter million dollars to developing chess each year. Actually I convinced them. I proposed the idea and then the finance minister said, ‘I am going to go with your idea and I am going to give it to you for 10 years’. Because I only asked him for 200,000, he gave me 250,000.

And I am working with kids in Africa as well. So I am actively participating in what has become the mission of my life. The mission of my life is to reproduce myself. Not just in terms of Black players, but also in terms of Black girls who are, truly, completely invisible in chess.

You never wanted to be a boxer?

Never. We siblings are proud of each other. Earlier, we were just extremely competitive, trying to one up each other. But now the time has passed. We brag about each other. And we brag about our parents. Our grandmother in particular. Our mother. The sacrifices that they had to make for us to even get the opportunity to become great. And they are the backbone.

When I think about my grandmother who has passed away, I regret I never really got to say thank you for what she had done and the sacrifices she had made. My mother left us in Jamaica when I was a two-year-old and spent ten years in the United States working, getting her citizenship together and then sponsoring us to come with her. So we lived ten years without my mother. And my grandmother took on the task of raising us when she was 64 years old, until she was 74.

So she raised her grandchildren for ten years. And she passed away before I could fully appreciate that and thank her for what she had done. But my mother is still alive and she knows how much we love her for what she did.

How did she react when you became a Grandmaster?

By that time, she had appreciated what I had done. But I will tell you what is funny about my mother. She is so practical. I remember becoming a Grandmaster, getting all the accolades and starting to even make real money from chess. And one day my mother looked at me and said, ‘Are you ever going to go back to college and get a master’s degree?’ I said, ‘No, mom, I made it. I don’t need to do anything else. I just need to pursue this career.’ And she said, ‘But you never know.’

How did you become a commentator?

I was discovered by Bob Rice, who was the commissioner of the PCA [Professional Chess Association] that sponsored the World Chess Championship [outside FIDE]. I had coached some young kids to a national championship title, junior high school. I was able to communicate with them, with ease, the difficulty of chess. Bob found out about it and said, ‘I think you could do commentary for us, because we have got this new league, with Kasparov and we’re planning to do tournaments all over the world.’

I remember when I went to Moscow, that first time, and was in the Kremlin building. I was supposed to just do stuff for Eurosport, but the commentary was in Russian, and Bob and all the Americans were like, listen, we need somebody to talk about it in English, because we can’t understand what is going on. So they put me in a booth in the Kremlin, while Kasparov and them played on stage. They put me in a booth, and I stood up there, I thought of basketball, and just called it like I was calling basketball. I was calling it at the top of my voice. Like, what a move by Garry Kasparov!

And it was so entertaining, they said, that Kasparov’s mother, Clara, said she would change the channel from the boring Russian to listen to me, even though she barely spoke any English. But she said, the guy is so exciting, she would rather listen to that than listen to the other one.

Emcee Ashley: During the title match between Ding Liren and D. Gukesh, Ashley was a familiar face — and voice — as the television presenter and moderator at the press conferences. | Photo credit: PTI

What are your memories of the World title match between Anand and Kasparov in New York in 1995 ?

The first memory is that it took place at the World Trade Centre, the Twin Towers, on September 11. And another memory I have from the match is Garry winning Game 10 after losing the previous one [the first eight games were drawn]. And the way he won was with supreme preparation. He would come into the room. Anand would make a move. He would come in and just play instantly and then walk out of the room. Just play the move, walk out. Play the move, walk out. He did it for the first 20 moves. And poor Anand was just caught in deep preparation. After that, he just crushed him for the rest of the match. And I think Vishy was still young, still had a lot to learn before he became the great champion that he became. But that match was about Garry asserting his dominance.