NM Joel Johnson

USCF 2216
FIDE 2223

Joel Johnson, unlike nearly all other chess masters, started playing tournament chess at the advanced age of 17.  But, it did not take long before success struck, in just his third chess tourney, Joel won the 1972 Merrimack Valley High Chess Championship (Lowell, MA area).  Less than six years later, Joel earned the National Master title, raising his USCF rating from 1342 to 2320, followed shortly thereafter, by the Life Master title.

As a player, Joel is a tactical chess player that has won many chess tournaments during his roughly thirty years of playing chess at the Master Level.  During the summer of 2007, Joel won the 2007 U.S. Senior Chess Championship.  Over the last two years, Joel has been the most active chess player in the state of Arizona, playing more than triple the number of USCF rated games than the next most active player.

In addition to playing, Joel runs the most active chess club in the state of Arizona (Valley Chess – see www.valleychess.org), which meets four times weekly to play USCF rated chess games throughout the city of Phoenix.  Also, he was an award winning Editor of “Chess Horizons”, the official state chess magazine for the state of Massachusetts and has published a book, entitled, “Fear No Evil”, a collection of his best games.

During his career, Joel has been involved in all aspects of chess, from organizing and directing chess tournaments, serving as chess magazine editor, serving as games editor, creating chess clubs, writing chess books, winning many chess tourneys, to being a very highly sought after chess coach, possessing great communication skills and many successful students.

2008 Results:
Week 1: NM Joel Johnson (ARZ) vs FM John Bick (TEN)  1-0
Week 9: NM Joel Johnson (ARZ) vs Ilan Meerovich (CHC)  1-0