Marcelo Garcia promotes his first black belts

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Josh Waitzkin and Alexander Meadows

congrats to them


I recieved my blue.
 
Nice! Congrats to them, and congrats to you!
 
Josh Waitzkin? This is blowing me away. I had no idea he practiced BJJ.

Josh was a chess prodigy, for those that did not know. They made a movie about him called 'Searching for Bobby Fischer' -- it is available on Netflix streaming.

He dropped out of chess about twelve years ago to pursue a career in Tai Chi. Have not heard much from him other than his new book about learning how to learn.

220px-Searching_for_bobby_fischer.jpg


Searching for Bobby Fischer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Awesome news! Grats all round!

Marcelo rolling with Josh:

 
Morozevich said:
Josh Waitzkin? This is blowing me away. I had no idea he practiced BJJ.

Josh was a chess prodigy, for those that did not know. They made a movie about him called 'Searching for Bobby Fischer' -- it is available on Netflix streaming.

He dropped out of chess about twelve years ago to pursue a career in Tai Chi. Have not heard much from him other than his new book about learning how to learn.

220px-Searching_for_bobby_fischer.jpg


Searching for Bobby Fischer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...

Wow,very interesting.I have seen
that movie.It's really good.
 
Knock Out Ned said:
Wow,very interesting.I have seen
that movie.It's really good.
Click to expand...

It is one of the only movies I can think of that has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Not to mention, the cast was excellent (i.e. Laurence Fishburne, Ben Kingsley, etc.)
 
BJJ is basically a grappling chess match so I bet he is an absolute beast.
 
i would love to desecrate their belts.

tapping them would be like tapping marcelo garcia himself. it would be tapping his judgement and his soul.
 
I've been rolling with Alex since I was a white belt, I know how much this meant to him and this news made my day!

n590847609_2015550_3869.jpg


(Alex is on Marcelo's left)
 
I am very glad to have been part of this great moment in BJJ history. Congrats to my MGA brothers and sisters.
 
Morozevich said:
Josh Waitzkin? This is blowing me away. I had no idea he practiced BJJ.

Josh was a chess prodigy, for those that did not know. They made a movie about him called 'Searching for Bobby Fischer' -- it is available on Netflix streaming.

He dropped out of chess about twelve years ago to pursue a career in Tai Chi. Have not heard much from him other than his new book about learning how to learn.

220px-Searching_for_bobby_fischer.jpg


Searching for Bobby Fischer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...

He's interviewed in "A Fighter's Mind" as well as Marcelo, Greg Jackson, Pat Miletich, and others. A lot of people talk about BJJ being like chess, but he's truly qualified to make the comparison. Fascinating human being and a great read.
 
BTW yes I do realize that a quick google search could do the job, but it feels so good to be spontaneous sometimes.
 
Morozevich said:
Josh Waitzkin? This is blowing me away. I had no idea he practiced BJJ.
Click to expand...

He wrote a book called "The Art of Learning" where he talks about learning chess and the martial arts, briefly mentions BJJ. Before BJJ he was a Tai Chi Chuan world champ. Met him at the NY Open when he was a brown belt, he had co-written a book with Marcelo I believe. But he started under one of the Machados. Excellent book. Congrats to him.
 
I just watched searching for bobby fisher a couple weeks ago on netflix. Great movie. That is crazy that he is a black belt in bjj...this is an excerpt from his wikipedia:

As a young adult, Josh's focus shifted to the martial art T'ai chi ch'uan, in which he has won thirteen push hands National Championships and 2 World Championship titles.
Josh is also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under world champion and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu phenomenon Marcelo Garcia with a goal of becoming a world champion in that martial art by 2013.[3][4] Josh is the co-founder of MGInAction.com and The Marcelo Garcia Academy, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school located in New York City.

This is a video I found online of "push hands" competition...I guess this is what he is a world champion in. It looks a lot like sumo to me.

 
chess player here too! (very very very sucky one though) my father was a pretty good chess player here in my country, I think he was national champ or something, I think his rank is grand master or something like that, he made me a fan of the game, remember watching this movie quite a long time ago.... awesome by the way..

This guy josh is just such of an intresting guy, I mean, who the hell drops chess at the age of 12, with such of talent, to persue tai chi chuan? I mean, seriusly, wtf??? he will probably be a beast on bjj too, pretty sure he already is, does anyone know how long it took him to get his black belt? considereing that he has a superhuman visual memory, and kind have to be pretty athletic too to win a championship on that pushing hands stuff...I dont think it took him that long...

anyways, congrats to him, and lucky you for having the opportunity to talk to someone as intresting as josh...

by the way, congrats on your blue, awesome too.
 
Chess player here, fairly decent one at my best (peak USCF rating 1903), and I can see why you'd quit chess for martial arts. Chess is actually really, really frustrating the better you get. It becomes a lot about memorization, and it's really stressful because a single minute mistake can destroy hours of work (in terms of a lost game), and lose you thousands of dollars if you're a pro. And the money sucks anyway unless you're one of the best 20-30 guys in the world, which Waitzkin was never going to be (though he would have been a solid GM I think for sure).

I basically started playing chess seriously when injuries forced me out of grappling, and gave it up competitively as soon as I could grapple again.
 
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