Beauty and the Geek Part 2

As you may recall, Paul MacIntyre posted earlier about the producers of the television show "Beauty and the Geek" calling the Boylston Chess Club in search of "geeks" when they came to Harvard Square to hold auditions. I don't know whether any club members tried out, but suffice to say none were selected to be on the show.

I've never watched the show myself, but our friend Howard Goldowsky has. Here is his report on the chess angle present in this season's series:

I try to avoid TV, but I do watch one show with my wife, called Beauty and the Geek. (I can relate to some of the contestants, if you know what I mean.) .... There are eight geeks. One is labeled as a "Speed Chess Champion". His name is Joe. I did a little Internet research and found out that his full name is Joe Block, he graduated from U of Chicago, and now attends Northwestern as a grad student. His USCF rating is 1590.... Another contestant, "Brandon", was the president of the U of Miami (FL) chess club a few years back. I couldn't find his last name. They showed about 10 seconds of these two playing blitz (with a Chronos) at the beginning of episode one. My hunch is that Joe is stronger than Brandon because I think Brandon lost the game. I have no idea how Joe got labeled as a champion, but I guess if you win one game some where, some time, "champion" you are.