Keivom / News

Robert Hess is a 15-year-old chess prodigy & plays football
BY FILIP BONDY

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Sunday, September 2nd 2007, 4:00 AM

Robert Hess (top r.) won U.S. Junior championship in chess at age 14. Now 15, he’s just one of many playing linebacker for Stuyvesant High School’s junior varsity team and head coach Chris Burrows.

As Robert Hess peers from his linebacker position at a developing play, the football field suddenly resembles a more familiar chessboard that he can navigate with precise genius.

The opposing quarterback is the king. The running back is the rook. There are attacking lines and patterns to be solved, perhaps a sacrificial block to execute in order to allow another tackler a clearer shot.

“You’re looking through the offensive line, the pawns, the line of defense,” he says.

This is one of those rare instances when Hess’ dual existence is totally in sync, the yin of the nerd in lockstep with the yang of the jock. For fleeting seconds, chess on the world-class level and football on the Stuyvesant High School junior varsity team complement and enhance each other. If only it were this easy all the time, balancing an extraordinary talent with an abiding passion.

Hess attempts the acrobatics, anyway. You have to understand that this Manhattan teen is no ordinary pawn-pusher. Beneath the helmet and shoulder pads resides a legitimate chess prodigy. Hess captured the U.S. Junior Championship in 2006 at age 14. Bobby Fischer, the ultimate yardstick for American chess brilliance, accomplished the same feat at a comparable age of 13.

Hess, a 15-year-old sophomore at Stuyvesant, was unable to defend his title this June, because it conflicted with Regents exams. Several top young New York chess players suffered the same lot, and none is happy about it. But Hess achieved international master status recently and owns a FIDE rating of 2483. Former world champion Garry Kasparov peaked at 2851, the highest-ever mark. These are celestial numbers in the universe of competitive chess, and Hess hopes soon to achieve grandmaster status, a level reached by only about 500 other current players.

This is all fine and good, except that the kid prefers football. He is 5-9, 160 pounds, and he will never achieve the rank of master at an NFL combine. Still, he will not be discouraged by such harsh, biological facts.

“I love everything about football,” he says. “The excitement, the contact, the rush. Chess is more just about winning. If you win, you feel good about yourself. There’s a lot of mind and energy put into it.”

Here is the full story.

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