“His reputation as a chess guy has spread,” Goodman says. “But he only plays five-minute chess which is not great for your understanding or ability to play a great game.”

But some of Turnbull’s opponents come from higher up in the University’s food chain.

Noam D. Elkies, professor of mathematics and Chess Club faculty adviser, won the 1996 world championship for solving chess problems—but has lost to the Chessmaster.

Though they haven’t played in a few years, Elkies acknowledges—conditionally—that Turnbull beats him more often than not.

“Murray and I have played a few times, and he’s won most but not all of those games,” Elkies says in an e-mail. “That’s what would be expected from the fact that we’re both masters but he’s a speed-chess specialist and I haven’t played a tournament game in some 15 years.”

In spite of more than two decades in the business, Turnbull maintains an encyclopedic memory of tournaments he has played—right down to the sequence of moves that led to a win.

“I could recite thousands of names of ranked players and who I’ve played against,” he says proudly.

Although competitive chess was once part of his life, Turnbull stopped playing rated chess matches in 1990. Since then, his ranking has slid a few points.

OFF-SEASON TRAINING

Turnbull isn’t playing chess publicly this month: he’s studying. With the end of the “season” for Turnbull comes his “vacation.” He spends much of that time watching chess matches between others online.

“I play little online, mostly I play with a computer program,” he says. “When I’m watching online I try to see what I would do and watch what they do.”

Turnbull, who now lives in a Concord Avenue apartment on the same floor as his father, never married and doesn’t keep his phone connected. He prefers to use his phone line for the Internet.

“I rarely plug in the phone, only when I need to make a call will I do it.”

But still, he says, there is no substitute for playing real matches.

“I’m a little bit slower when I go out in the spring. I get a little rusty,” he says. “Everyone gets rusty together, though.”