Jonathan Corbblah

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Jonathan Corbblah
A black man in a grey polo shirt is seated at a table, facing left of frame.
Corbblah in 2015
Born1978/1979 (age 44–45)
Occupations
  • Coach
  • teacher
Known forCompeting on game shows

Jonathan Corbblah (born 1978 or 1979) is a chess master from New York City, known for appearing on as many American game shows as possible.

Personal life

Jonathan Corbblah was born in 1978 or 1979.[1] As a child, he was almost held back in the first grade because he was illiterate; after his father—a Christian preacher—spent the summer drilling academics non-stop, by the next academic year, he was ahead of his second-grade class.[2]

As of December 2010, he was married and living in Harlem.[1] By February 2014, he was coaching individuals and teams for national trivia championships, and taught Scrabble[2] to schoolchildren.[1]

Games and game shows

Corbblah learned to play chess at age six or seven.[2] According to the United States Chess Federation, since he began playing ranked matches in the late 1990s, Corbblah has a top regular Elo rating of 2199 (earned between 2010 and 2014) and a top blitz rating of 2262 (in 2019).[3] In December 2002, he became a USCF Candidate Master,[4] and in 2014, Pacific Standard reported he was a master-level chess player.[2]

Corbblah was eleven years old in 1990 when he appeared on his first game show, PBS' Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.[1] In December 2010, after his two days on Jeopardy!, he told ABC News that "I'm trying to go on as many possible game shows as I can";[5] he has appeared on at least seven.

Date(s) Show Result Citation(s)
1990 Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? A basketball and US$100 (equivalent to $233.21 in 2023) [1]
July 23, 2004 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire US$32,000 (equivalent to $51,619 in 2023) [6]
December 13, 2010 
December 14, 2010
Jeopardy! $14,000 (equivalent to $19,561 in 2023) [6]
August 6, 2013 The Chase $60,000 (equivalent to $78,480 in 2023)
Shared with two other contestants
[6]
December 17, 2014 Wheel of Fortune $14,500 (equivalent to $18,662 in 2023) [6]
May 21, 2015 500 Questions Unable to defeat Steve Bahnaman [6]

In summer 2019, he was a guest expert on several episodes of

Best Ever Trivia Show, and then as a master mind on several 2020–2021 episodes of Master Minds.[6] He has also won $1,500 on Cash Cab.[1]

References

External links