Jonathan Corbblah (born 1979)[1] is a USCF Candidate Master from New York City, known for his appearances on many American game shows.
Personal life
Jonathan Corbblah was born in 1979.[1] As a child, he was almost held back in the first grade because he was illiterate; after his father—a Christianpreacher—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[update], he was married and living in Harlem.[3] By February 2014[update], he was coaching individuals and teams for national trivia championships, and taught Scrabble[2] to schoolchildren.[3]
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).[4] In December 2002, he became a USCF Candidate Master,[5] 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?.[3] 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";[6] he has appeared on at least seven.
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.[7] He has also won $1,500 on Cash Cab.[3]
