Robert Lee Hess is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 Grandmaster. As of September 2011, his FIDE rating was 2625, fifth in the United States (first among American-born players).

IM

Hess achieved his final norm for the International Master title at the 2007 Cannes Open, and was later awarded the title by FIDE.

GM

Hess achieved his first grandmaster norm

Grandmaster norm

A norm in chess is one of the requirements to receive a title such as Grandmaster from FIDE.- Grandmaster norm :In order to qualify for the title of Grandmaster of chess, a title awarded by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, a player must achieve three or more grandmaster norms in events covering a...

 at the 2008 Foxwoods Open, held on April 19 through April 23 at the Foxwoods Resort

Foxwoods Resort Casino

Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel-casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States. Together with the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, it is one of the largest casino complexes in the world in terms of floor space for gaming. The entire resort comprises of space. The casino has over 380 gaming tables...

 in Mashantucket, Connecticut. He scored 7–2, tying for first with grandmasters Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Shabalov is an American chess grandmaster, the multiple winner of the U.S. Chess Championships; he was the 2007 US Champion. He was born in Latvia, and like his fellow Latvians Alexei Shirov and Mikhail Tal he is known for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness...

, Yury Shulman

Yury Shulman

Yuri Shulman is a Belarusian American chess grandmaster. He also goes by the alternate spelling of "Yury Shulman."-Chess career:Shulman started formal chess lessons with coach Tamara Golovey when he was six years old. He went on to study under International Master Albert Kapengut at age 12, and...

, Julio Becerra

Julio Becerra

Julio Becerra Rivero is an American International Grandmaster of chess, who lives in Miami, FL. He plays for the Miami Sharks in the U.S. Chess League.Defected to the U.S. in 1999 and was MVP in the U.S. Chess League in 2006....

, and Alexander Ivanov. Hess won his first two games against masters, then played seven grandmasters, scoring four wins, two draws, and one loss. His performance rating for the tournament was approximately 2770 USCF

United States Chess Federation

The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...

. Chess journalist Jerry Hanken called Hess's achievement "one of the greatest performances by an American teenager since the heyday of Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

!"

In April 2009, he secured his third and final grandmaster norm in the Foxwoods Open, soon after winning the SPICE

Susan Polgar

Susan Polgar is a Hungarian-American chess Grandmaster...

 Spring Grandmaster Invitational (where he made his second GM norm) and the K-12 SuperNationals tournaments.

Other

In the 2009 US Chess Championship in May, Hess tied for second with Alexander Onischuk

Alexander Onischuk

Alexander Onischuk is an American chess grandmaster. Originally from Ukraine, he immigrated to the US in 2001 and currently lives in Northern Virginia. He was the 2006 U.S. Chess Champion...

, with a score of +5 −1 =3, losing only to eventual winner Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster . He has been ranked among the top six players in the world by FIDE....

. He was on the silver-medal US team at the 2009 World Team Championships in Bursa, Turkey. Hess was awarded the 2010 Samford Fellowship "based on his chess talent, work ethic, dedication and accomplishments". He is also a member of the 2010 US Olympiad Team.

Hess is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School

Stuyvesant High School

Stuyvesant High School , commonly referred to as Stuy , is a New York City public high school that specializes in mathematics and science. The school opened in 1904 on Manhattan's East Side and moved to a new building in Battery Park City in 1992. Stuyvesant is noted for its strong academic...

 in New York and now attends Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 after deferring a year to play chess. In the 2007−08 school year, he was a sophomore and the co-captain of Stuyvesant's junior varsity

Junior varsity

Primarily in North America, junior varsity or JV players are the members of a team who are not the main players in a competition , usually at the high school and college levels in the United States and Canada. The main players comprise the varsity team...

 football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team, on which he was a starting linebacker

Linebacker

A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...

.

Notable games

Robert Hess–Alexander Ivanov, 2008 Foxwoods Open:

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 c6 4. h4 d5 5. e5 f6 6. f4 h5 7. Bd3 Kf7 8. Qe2 Nh6 9. Be3 Bg4 10. Nf3 Nf5 11. Qf2 Nd7 12. Bd2 Bxf3 13. gxf3 Qb6 14. Na4 Qc7 15. Rg1 e6 16. 0-0-0 Rag8 17. Rg2 Bf8 18. Rdg1 Be7 19. Nc3 Qd8 20. Ne4 dxe4 21. fxe4 Nh6 22. f5 Ng4 23. fxe6+ Kg7 24. Rxg4 hxg4 25. Rxg4 Nf8 26. exf6+ Bxf6 27. e5 Rh5 28. exf6+ Qxf6 29. Rf4 Qxe6 30. d5 Qxd5 31. Rf7+ 1–0

External links

• "Robert Hess is a 15-year-old chess prodigy & plays football" NY Daily News
• "Interview with GM-elect Robert Hess" US Chess Federation