August 25, 1996|By BILL CORNWALL Special to the Sun-Sentinel

<Schwartzman, who arrived in the United States from his native Romania just a few years ago, is the youngest grandmaster in our country and one of the youngest in the world. Achieving things early is a habit for him. For example, Schwartzman says that he started to get an interest in chess at the age of 2 and was entered in his first tournament at 4. He held a simultaneous exhibition at 7 and received an international invitation to Paris when he was 8. By the age of 12, Schwartzman had become a master, and he was awarded the international master's title at 15. About three years ago, the International Chess Federation awarded him the highest title in chess, "international grandmaster," making him the youngest grandmaster in Florida and one of the youngest in the world.

Schwartzman is a man of many talents. He speaks six languages, involves himself in many nontournament chess promotions and activities, and studies as a junior at the University of Florida, where he plans on majoring in finance and minoring in telecommunications. But he does not lose sight of his major ambition: "I am now working very hard to become better so that I can reach my ultimate goal: World Champion!''>

Last game in this database is at age 21, then it appears he lost interest in playing competitively and went on to build a successful professional non-chess career.

His Wikipedia page says he got an MBA from Wharton. It doesn't say when, but I would guess we overlapped on Penn campus (I was there 1995-2003). I would have reached out to him had I heard about him.