Photo by Beatriz Marinello

Ray Robson is the newest American Grandmaster elect!  Robson earned his 3rd GM norm at the age of  14 years 11 months and 16 days old. He recently won the Panamerican Junior Championship securing the norm, a GM title and a rating performance of 3116!  How is that for talent?!

In winning his final GM norm Robson becomes one of the youngest GMs in the history of chess.  He is currently participating in the World Junior and received a special invitation to play in the World Cup!

A little history….

Robson was awarded the FIDE Master (FM) title after he tied for first place at the Pan American Youth Chess Championship in Brazil in June 2005.  He also earned the USCF National Master (NM) title in January 2006 when his chess rating exceeded the 2200 mark, which is the minimum required for the National Master title.

In 2007, Ray became the youngest U.S. IM Elect when he earned the three norms he needed: the first at the 6th North American FIDE Invitational (Chicago, Illinois);  the second at the World Youth Chess Championship (Antalya, Turkey) and the third at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) GM Invitational (Dallas, Texas).

In July 2009, he won the U.S. Junior Chess Championship and became one of the youngest champions ever to do so.

In August 2009, Robson tied for 1st place at the Arctic Chess Challenge (Tromso, Norway), earning his first GM norm. He then went on to earn his second GM norm when he won the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational (Skokie, Illinois).  And his third and final norm was obtained, as we previously mentioned, at the 2009 Pan American Junior Championship in Uruguay.

Congratulations Ray!!

So, who are some of the youngest GMs in the World?

Here is a list:

1. Sergey Karjakin 12 years, 7 months, 0 days
2. Parimarjan Negi 13 years, 4 months, 22 days
3. Magnus Carlsen 13 years, 4 months, 27 days
4. Bu Xiangzhi 13 years, 10 months, 13 days
5. Teimour Radjabov 14 years, 0 months, 14 days
6. Ruslan Ponomariov 14 years, 0 months, 17 days
7. Wesley So 14 years, 1 month, 28 days
8. Etienne Bacrot 14 years, 2 months, 0 days
9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 14 years, 4 months
10. Péter Lékó 14 years, 4 months, 22 days
11. Hou Yifan 14 years, 6 months, 16 days
12. Anish Giri 14 years, 7 months, 2 days
13. Yuriy Kuzubov 14 years, 7 months, 12 days
14. Dariusz Swiercz 14 years, 7 months, 29 days
15. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 14 years, 10 months
16. Ray Robson 14 Years 11 Months 16 days
17. Fabiano Caruana 14 years, 11 months, 20 days

Ray Robson was also the recipient of the 2009 Samford Fellowship which provides the opportunity for young American players to excel in chess. Click Here for more details…