Subject of 'Searching for Bobby Fischer' now an International Master

On his way to the monkey bars one day in New York's Washington Square Park, six-year-old Josh Waitzkin stopped to watch the men huddled over chess boards. Not long afterward, he played his first game at the park -- against a man in his 60s who beat the young chess whiz but told him, "I'll read about you in the papers some day."

Waitzkin is now 20, an International Master who already has had his time in the spotlight. The movie Searching for Bobby Fischer was based on Waitzkin's life, he's written a book, Josh Waitzkin's Attacking Chess, and he even appeared on TV's "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee" to play chess against his hero, Garry Kasparov. (Josh, who was 16 at the time, lost. Five years earlier, he was among 57 children who played simultaneously against Kasparov and was one of two who reached a draw with the world champion.)

Waitzkin, who teaches chess at PS 116 in Manhattan, brought members of his class to Game 5 of the Kasparov-Deep Blue rematch on Saturday. Waitzkin's team of five fourth-graders came in third recently in the fifth-grade and under category of the national championships.

"Next year we'll win it," Waitzkin says with utter confidence.

In this battle of man vs. machine, Waitzkin is squarely on the human's side. "It's a brutal match. Deep Blue is very strong. I'm rooting for Kasparov with all my heart," he says.

Waitzkin objects to commentators characterizing Kasparov's play as "reactive" or even "cowardly." Though Kasparov is not as aggressive as usual, he says, it's for a good reason. "People are saying Kasparov is playing with fear. He's playing with respect for the computer. He's challenging the computer in very mathematical ways. He is the only player in the world who could beat Deep Blue."

So far, Waitzkin says he has won eight or nine national championships. He's put off attending Columbia University to major in literature so he can devote a few more years to playing chess professionally. He predicts he'll achieve grandmaster status within the year. As for challenging Kasparov?

"I need a couple more years to beat him," he says.
-- Julia Lawlor