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Ken Jennings's run as a "Jeopardy!" wunderkind made him a celebrity. It also made him a target. Now every trivia nut wants a piece of him.
Brian Chaback of Oceanside got to take his swings at Ken Jennings in an exhibition staged at Nassau Community College.
Last week the liberal arts student got to field 10 questions against Jennings. There were seven "real" "Jeopardy!"-type questions - which would make them answers - and three answers chosen for their difficulty. Among the first seven were answers about the capitals of obscure nations, or the names of nomads in medieval China. Then came the brutal ones, which were about such topics as the history of NCC and the Roosevelt Field Mall.
Jennings got just two of the original seven and none of the tough ones, but Chaback got two of the last three. They called it a draw.
"By the second question I realized they were ridiculously difficult," Chaback said, "so I just joked around with my answers... And I was told it was completely for fun and I wouldn't know any of them."
The requirements for a student to compete against Jennings were honors and a grade point average of 3.5. Chaback had both - including some charisma.
"The person who selected me basically did so based on my personality," Chaback added. "Apparently I stuck out in her mind after I interviewed with her for classes, and she just thought I would be perfect."
In addition to doing TV commercials, Jennings is now promoting a board game called "Can You Beat Ken?" Before the contest, Jennings talked about his experiences on "Jeopardy!" and trivia in general.
"He said that if you know some random facts, a lot of times someone else might know them and it's a way of connecting with that person," Chaback said. "But what he mainly tried to get across is that you should always be willing to learn, to open your mind to learn anything and everything you can."
Chaback, 19, is learning anything and everything he can as a liberal arts major at NCC. He came to NCC after graduating from Oceanside High School in 2003 and spending his freshman year at Stony Brook. Next fall he plans to study elementary education at either Molly or St. Joseph's College.
While not a steady fan of "Jeopardy!", Chaback nevertheless watched many shows as Jennings was cleaning up week after week. Getting to play against him, even if only for fun, made Chaback nevertheless feel accomplished and proud.
"As it ends up, I didn't get any questions right," he said, "and it really didn't matter. It was just a great experience to be up there with the all-time 'Jeopardy!' champion."
