Robert Lee Hess (born December 19, 1991) is an American
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
player who received the
FIDE title
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
rating
A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both.
Rating or ratings may also refer to:
Business and economics
* Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, ...
was 2635, fifth in the United States. Hess is a commentator for Chess.com, covering events such as the World Chess Championship and Candidates Tournament. He also streams chess content on his Twitch channel GMHess, which has 73,000+ followers.
Education
Hess attended the
Browning School
The Browning School is an independent school for boys in New York City. It was founded in 1888 by John A. Browning. It offers instruction in grades kindergarten through 12th grade. The school is a member of the New York Interschool consortium.
...
, a private all-boys preparatory school in Manhattan. He is a graduate of
Stuyvesant High School
, motto_translation = For knowledge and wisdom
, address = 345 Chambers Street
, city = New York
, state = New York
, zipcode = 10282
, country ...
in New York.Hanken, p. 20. In the 2007–08 school year, he was a sophomore and the co-captain of Stuyvesant's
junior varsity
Junior varsity (often called "JV") players are the members of a team who are not the main players in a competition (such as any football, basketball, or baseball game), usually at the high school level–– and formerly at the collegiate level ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
team, on which he was a starting
linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...
.
After deferring a year to play chess, Hess attended
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
and graduated in 2015 with a degree in history. He became the co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sports Quotient, a now defunct sports blog.
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
title at the 2007
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...
Open, and was later awarded the title IM by FIDE.
Hess achieved his first
grandmaster norm
A norm in chess is a high level of performance in a chess tournament. The level of performance is typically measured in tournament performance rating above a certain threshold (for instance, 2600 for GM norm), and there is a requirement on the lev ...
at the 2008 Foxwoods Open, held on April 19 through April 23 at the
Foxwoods Resort
Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel and casino complex owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casinos have more ...
in
Mashantucket, Connecticut
Mashantucket is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northeast part of the town of Ledyard, New London County, Connecticut, United States. It consists of land held by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The Foxwoods Resort Casino
Foxwoods Resort ...
. He scored 7–2, tying for first with grandmasters
Alexander Shabalov
Alexander Anatolyevich Shabalov (russian: Алекса́ндр Анато́льевич Шаба́лов; lv, Aleksandrs Šabalovs; born September 12, 1967) is an American chess grandmaster and a four-time winner of the United States Chess Ch ...
,
Yury Shulman
Yuri Shulman ( be, Юрый Маркавіч Шульман, russian: Ю́рий Ма́ркович Шу́льман; born April 29, 1975 in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, USSR) is a Belarusian American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandma ...
,
Julio Becerra
Julio Becerra Rivero (born October 15, 1973) is a Cuban-born American chess Grandmaster who lives in South Miami, Florida. Julio Becerra was born and grew up in Havana, Cuba. He learned to play chess when he was thirteen years old. Julio Becerra ...
, and Alexander Ivanov. Hess won his first two games against masters, then played seven grandmasters, scoring four wins, two draws, and one loss.Hanken, p. 21. His performance rating for the tournament was approximately 2770 USCF. Chess journalist Jerry Hanken called Hess's achievement "one of the greatest performances by an American teenager since the heyday of
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11 ...
!"
In April 2009, he secured his third and final grandmaster norm in the Foxwoods Open, soon after winning the
SPICE
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...
Spring Grandmaster Invitational (where he made his second GM norm) and the K-12 SuperNationals tournaments.
In the 2009 US Chess Championship in May, Hess tied for second with
Alexander Onischuk
Alexander Onischuk (; born September 3, 1975) is a Ukrainian-American chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994, and won the 2006 U.S. championship.
Career
In 1991 Onischuk finished second in the world under 16 cha ...
, with a score of +5 −1 =3, losing only to eventual winner
Hikaru Nakamura
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura He was also a member of the 2010 US Olympiad Team. In December 2011 he tied for first–second with
Alexander Kovchan
Alexander Anatolyevich Kovchan ( uk, Олександр Анатолійович Ковчан, ''Oleksandr Anatoliyovych Kovchan''; born 21 October 1983) is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster (2002).
Biography
Kovchan played for Ukraine in the 199 ...
in the
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of t ...