Troy Roberts is the author of
Next Move: My Terrible, Wonderful, Bipolar Life
, his first book.
Raised in a Baltimore family with mob ties, he grew up in a tumultuous household, surrounded by crime, prostitution, violence and drugs, often escaping with his mother and sister to his grandparent's home near Savannah, Georgia.
As an early teen, he fell under the thrall of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but by the time he was in his mid- teens he found another, far more powerful obsession: chess. Despite an almost crippling affliction of bipolar inherited from both sides of his family, he managed to rise from his circumstances and become a top-rated U.S. chess player, achieving the rank of Life Master.
Professionally, he was the brains behind the rise of high-end designer hardware and plumbing fixtures in big box retailers such as Lowe's and Home Depot. He calls Baltimore home and lives in the area with his wife and daughter. He still plays and teaches chess.