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Patrick Wolff
Patrick Wolff
Patrick Wolff
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Patrick Gideon Wolff (born February 15, 1968) is an American chess Grandmaster. He is the son of philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and brother of law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff. Wolff won the United States Chess Championship in 1992 and 1995.

Key Information

Chess career

[edit]
This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

In addition to his two United States championships (1992 and 1995), Wolff also had a distinguished scholastic chess career, winning the 1983 National High School Championship and the 1987 U.S. Junior Championship.[1]

Kasparov vs. Wolff, New York 1988
hgfedcba
1
f1 white king
g2 white bishop
f2 black pawn
d2 black queen
b2 white pawn
a2 white pawn
f3 white pawn
h4 black bishop
e4 white queen
h7 black pawn
f7 black pawn
b7 black pawn
a7 black pawn
h8 black king
f8 black rook
e8 white knight
c8 white rook
1
22
33
44
55
66
77
88
hgfedcba
Final position

In 1988, in a game played in New York City, Wolff defeated the world champion Garry Kasparov during a simultaneous exhibition in just 25 moves with the black pieces:[2]

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.d4 exd4 5.Qxd4 d5 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.Nf3 Nc6 8.Qa4 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Be3 Ng4 11.Bd4 Nxd4 12.Nxd4 Qb6 13.Nc3 Qh6 14.h4 g5 15.Nxd5 Bd8 16.Rac1 gxh4 17.Rxc8 hxg3 18.Nf3 Nh2 19.Rfc1 Rxc8 20.Rxc8 Nxf3+ 21.exf3 gxf2+ 22.Kf1 Qd2 23.Nf6+ Kg7 24.Ne8+ Kh8 25.Qe4 Bh4 0–1

This game, although played as part of a simultaneous exhibition against five other masters, was one of Kasparov's shortest losses in his career.

In 1995, the same year he won his second United States championship, Wolff served as a second to challenger Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the Classical World Chess Championship 1995 match against champion Kasparov. Although Anand led the match after nine games, Kasparov eventually prevailed 10.5 to 7.5.[3]

Wolff is also the author of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. He graduated from Harvard College in 1996, and the trophy of the annual Harvard-Yale intercollegiate chess match is named the Wolff Cup in his honor, as he remains the only grandmaster to participate in the match as a member of both colleges (beginning at Yale University and graduating from Harvard).[4]

Wolff's game against Vassily Ivanchuk from the Biel Invitational in 1993 was featured in the 2020 Netflix limited series, The Queen's Gambit.[5] Kasparov, who acted as a chess consultant for the series, selected and modified the 1993 game to serve as the game played during the series' climax.

Investing career

[edit]

Wolff was previously a managing director at San Francisco hedge fund Clarium, a $3B global macro hedge fund. He left Clarium to launch Grandmaster Capital Management, a hedge fund that received seed capital from Peter Thiel, the founder of Clarium and a strong chess player himself.[6]

Hedge Fund Alert reported that Wolff started the wind-down process of Grandmaster Capital in June 2015.

Over the past several years, Wolff has given a blindfolded simultaneous exhibition for all comers at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska headed by CEO Warren Buffett and Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger.[7]

Personal life

[edit]

Wolff is the youngest son of the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and literary historian Cynthia Griffin Wolff. His brother is professor of law Tobias Barrington Wolff.

Originally from the Boston area, Wolff currently resides in San Francisco.[8]

References

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Patrick Wolff

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from Grokipedia
Patrick Wolff is an American chess grandmaster known for winning the U.S. Chess Championship in 1992 and sharing the title in 1995. He achieved early prominence by capturing the National High School Champion title in 1983 and the U.S. Junior Champion title in 1987. Wolff served as second to Viswanathan Anand during the 1995 PCA World Chess Championship match against Garry Kasparov. Wolff has made notable contributions to chess education as the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess. He has remained active in the chess community, competing in tournaments and events into recent years. Outside of competitive play, Wolff manages an investment company and resides in San Francisco, California.

Early life

Patrick Wolff was born on February 15, 1968, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the youngest son of philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and literary historian Cynthia Griffin Wolff, and the brother of law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff. Wolff learned chess from his father at the age of five. He had a distinguished scholastic chess career, winning the 1983 National High School Championship, the U.S. Junior Championship in 1984 (at age 16), and again in 1987.

Career

Patrick Wolff is an American chess grandmaster with a notable competitive career in the 1980s and 1990s, followed by a transition to finance and continued occasional involvement in chess.

Chess career

Wolff won the National High School Championship in 1983 and the U.S. Junior Championship in 1987. He earned the FIDE Grandmaster title in 1990. His peak FIDE rating was 2595 (January 1994). He won the U.S. Chess Championship in 1992 and shared the title in 1995 (with Nick de Firmian and Alexander Ivanov). Notable moments include defeating Garry Kasparov in a 1988 simultaneous exhibition (Kasparov resigned after 25 moves as Black) and a game against Vassily Ivanchuk in 1993. He represented the United States in international team events and competed in strong tournaments. In 1995, Wolff served as second to Viswanathan Anand during the PCA World Chess Championship match against Garry Kasparov. He is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess (multiple editions) and related works on chess instruction. Wolff largely retired from competitive chess around 1998 but returned after a long hiatus, playing rated games in 2019 at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco (where he briefly served as Interim Director). He participated in the 2023 U.S. Senior Championship, notably defeating GM Dmitry Gurevich in round seven.

Finance and later career

After his active chess period, Wolff entered the finance industry. He worked as a Managing Director at Clarium Capital (2005–2010), a global macro hedge fund associated with Peter Thiel. He later founded and managed Grandmaster Capital Management (seeded by Thiel), which focused on value equity investing with a macro outlook and wound down around 2015. Wolff has given blindfolded simultaneous exhibitions at Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meetings. He has also been involved in San Francisco civic activities, including education advocacy and a campaign for California Insurance Commissioner. He resides in San Francisco, California, and remains active in occasional chess events.

Personal life

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