I just got a confirmation from Gary, Ray Robson’s Dad, from Uruguay that Ray has won the Panamerican Junior Championship with one round to spare. After a 7/7 start, he took a draw in round 8 in a superior position to secure the norm and title.
For winning this tournament, he automatically earns a GM norm, his third, and thus GM title since his rating is already more than 2500!
Congratulations to Ray and his family! I am so happy for them. Well done!
According to Michigan Chess Dad, here are the records:
Ray Robson 14 Years 11 Months 16 days
Fabiano Caruana 14 Years 11 Months 20 days
Hikaru Nakamura 15 years and 79 days
Robert James “Bobby” Fischer 15 Years 6 months
Congratulations Ray!
Michigan Chess Dad
Always count on Susan to bring us the news first. Nice job by the USCF to copy and paste news from Susan.
Go Ray!
Unreal. I doubt there’s ever been–in US history–such a quick coronation of two new grandmasters, such as Finegold and Robson over the past few weeks.
Thank you for the good news. Congratulations Ray!
We are so proud of RAY ROBSON!!
http://www.claudiachess.blogspot.com,
Way to go Ray! Well done.
“he took a draw in round 8 in a superior position”
Isn’t that distortion of competition? He should have made the best out of the game and win it, too.
I believe that Ray Robson gets the record of the youngest American Grandmaster in history.
Ray Robson 14 Years 11 Months 11 days
Fabiano Caruana 14 Years 11 Months 20 days
Hikaru Nakamura 15 years and 79 days
Robert James “Bobby” Fischer 15 Years 6 months
Michigan Chess Dad
The youngest American GM in history!
More info in
http://escaque.blogspot.com/
Best regards
Hopefully all the other players ages listed on Wikipedia for earning their GM Titles are based on date earned not the date granted by FIDE…
An outstanding achievement in any case!
Michigan Chess Dad
‘Isn’t that distortion of competition? He should have made the best out of the game and win it, too.’
Ignatius Leong of the Arbiters Committee would have defaulted him and his opponent without a blink.
But surely, its what every normal person would have done.
‘Hopefully all the other players ages listed on Wikipedia’
Wikipedia information is not to be trusted. Trust only what you see with your own eyes.
Incorrect on your timing for Ray. It’s 11 months, 16 days, not 11 days.
26th of Sept is day 1 after month 11, then continue to count until today which is the 11th.
Youngest GM in US history?! Is there anbybody out there who seriously believes he is only close to being as good as Fischer? Do not forget that it was much more difficult in Fischer’s time to obtain that title as compared to today. Great accomplishment nonetheless of course…
Grande flamante GMI Ray
Con afecto
Oscar
This is fantastic news! Congratulations to Ray and his family who support him so well in his quest, and congratulations to the USA too. There is an exciting “new day” of chess taking place in the USA, and I am so proud to be able to witness these events!
To GM Polgar and SPICE, thank you so much for bringing us events that are featuring talent from around the world and also the USA, giving these players opportunities to earn norms. GM-elect Ray Robson will be a great representative of the USA at the upcoming World Cup. Before, I was just going to play attention because GM Judit Polgar, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, and GM Hou Yifan are playing. Now I will have an additional “motherly” eye upon 🙂
Jan Newton
goddesschess.com
goddesschess.blogspot.com
Congratulations to a gifted and hard working young chess player. I don’t know why we have to compare Robson to Fischer or Nakamura for that matter. Let’s celebrate him for his considerable accomplishments and look forward to a bright future in chess.
I think when a son/daughter gets GM norm, parents – for financing should get – IM norm, too, and neighbours for rooting – FM norms.
‘Incorrect on your timing for Ray. It’s 11 months, 16 days, not 11 days.’
Who cares? Ray got his GM title fair and square, which is more than many can say.
There’s something I don’t get. Does winning the Pan American Juniors give you a GM norm outright? Because I don’t think he played enough GMs in that tournament to get a norm and there were an awfully large number of untitled players too.
Please enlighten me.
‘Always count on Susan to bring us the news first.’
That’s what I am counting on always and forever.
Anonymous Sunday, October 11, 2009 6:24:00 PM CDT
I stand corrected, yet Ray is still the youngest of the group.
Let’s see if Ben Finegold was born on February 29th, would that make him the youngest GM? No he was born in September. Sorry Ben 😉
Michigan Chess Dad
Congratulations to Ray.
Can you really compare GM-title-age across generations? During Fischer’s time, there were not as many tournaments.
Also, there were so few GMs — so, (a) there were fewer qualifying tournaments, and (b) in percentile terms, a GM was one of very few in the world.
I wish Ray makes a winning streak of 50 games now!
‘Unreal. I doubt there’s ever been–in US history–such a quick coronation of two new grandmasters, such as Finegold and Robson over the past few weeks.’
Donald Duck and Goofy?
‘Thank you for the good news. Congratulations Ray!’
Yeah, good news for Ray! But, as usual, all of you are forgetting that it was BAD NEWS for all others, who will have to wait another year for the norm and title hunt.
‘Isn’t that distortion of competition?’
No. But it is distortion of blogging rights.
‘There’s something I don’t get. Does winning the Pan American Juniors give you a GM norm outright?’
Yes. USCF is mostly unaware of these benefits and does not advertise them at all, otherwise we would have had more GMs before.
Incredible! At 14 I was still grappling with The Flintstones.
‘Can you really compare GM-title-age across generations?’
GM today is better player than GM yesterday.
GO RAY ROBSON!!! It’s because of him that I’m not so worried about the future of American chess.
‘GM today is better player than GM yesterday.’
I disagree.
Very little theory was known in Fisher’s time. He was much stronger than people around him (relatively speaking).
Today, you have computers and lots of theory, so a move might be more accurate in absolute terms, but in relative terms, there are many people who are as good as you. I know this is not the proper forum to discuss this, but GMs are dime-a-dozen. You almost have to consider the 2700+ or 2750+ as the “Grand-Master” class.
So CLO stole the news from Polgar without giving her credit again? The official website didn’t post his 8th round draw. The game wasn’t on the internet. The news came directly from Ray’s Dad. So how did CLO get it? CLO also gave the identical link as Polgar which is not the link to the official site main page. Very sad.
I agree. CLO gave a link which only shows the results after 7 rounds. How would CLO know about round 8 where the only place which reports the news in English about Ray Robson is on this blog.
CLO should have cited the proper source instead of stealing the news and pretends that they got the exclusive scoop. It’s also pathetic that only 4 people even bothered to comment on CLO about Robson.
How many GMs were there in the world when Fischer got the title? Today, there are something like a thousand. The title doesn’t mean what it was originally intended to mean. Robson is a fine player. We’ll have to wait and see if he can become one of the top 10 in the world, which is what a “grandmaster” should really be.
Not an English link, but in
http://escaque.blogspot.com/
you’ll find a photo of Robson’s 8th-round score-sheet.
Very nice, indeed.
Congratulations to Ray and his family. Excellent result – special mind.
Hou Yifan obtained her GM title at the age of 14 years, six months and two days.
‘We’ll have to wait and see if he can become one of the top 10 in the world, which is what a “grandmaster” should really be.’
What a gm should be is decided by the title givers.
“What a gm should be is decided by the title givers.”
Not entirely. There is an inflation effect going on that FIDE seems either powerless or unwilling to reverse. The title no longer means what it was originally intended to mean. It would be interesting to look up the history of the title. How many GM’s were there in the 50’s, when the title first became official?
There’s no way CLO would have had the info without getting it from Polgar blog. Even the source that CLO cited didn’t publish the results of round 8 and 9. The info from Polgar came directly from Gary Robson. CLO got caught stealing information without citing the proper source. There’s nothing of using other sources but you must cite the source. CLO failed to do that. Even the link to the site came from Polgar. Shame on CLO.
In the latest list of GM’s his name is
not found.(November 2009, FIDE,USA}