The headline from the West Palm Beach News reads: Elderly Carjacking Suspect Former Child Chess Prodigy
Suspect’s Father Says Son’s Involvement ‘Obvious,’ But Won’t Turn His Back On Him
You can find the sordid details at: wpbf.com/news/21597100/detail.html
I couldn’t find anybody by that name in the USCF or FIDE database.
Unless he was a child chess prodigy before about 12 years old, he was not a chess prodigy in Palm Beach County.
And if he was a master before age 12, we would have heard of him.
I couldn’t find anyone fitting that description either, though it’s possible the family has changed its name, that they weren’t living in the USA at the time, or that the paper accepted the father’s description of his son as a former chess prodigy without checking it.
I suspect the latter. The paper didn’t check its facts. I don’t disagree that the kid might have had some talent as a youngster, and even garnered some local fame (wherever that might have been), but I doubt the guy was anything close to a chess prodigy. Even playing at a level of 1600 (but not an official rating) at say the age of 12 or 13 could have easily been (in the local scene), inflated as playing at a much better level than his actual skill.
When a father is quoted as referring to his son as one who comes from his womb, either he is out of touch with reality or the media is careless. Those two are not mutually exclusive.
Substitute ‘loin’ for ‘womb’ and it reads just fine. I suspect this quote came from someone for whom English was not his first language, which may improve the odds that the player in question played his chess somewhere than in the USA, too.
Such a shame. At least two of the people who were on the same high school chess team as me are in Attica now…
Wow.
Big team? High incarceration rate from the High School class? Statistical fluke? (And I hope, at least, they get to play chess at Attica. No, seriously. 
)
Average sized team.
Ghetto school in the inner city.
Gangs, drugs, graffiti, fights, you name it we had it.