Ray Robson


Ray Robson, 2010
Association	United States United States
Born	October 25, 1994 Guam
title	International Master (2008) Grand Master (2010)
Current Elo rating	2673 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2682 (September 2018)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Ray Robson (born October 25, 1994 in Guam ) is an American chess player .

Life

Robson was born in Guam to a linguistics professor and a Chinese woman . A little later his parents moved with him to Largo (Florida) . Robson learned the rules of chess from his father when he was three . Soon after, he won numerous school tournaments, including the 2005 "Super Nationals" in Nashville . Robson represented the USA at several World Youth Championships and Pan American Youth Championships between 2004 and 2007. In 2006 he won the US National Championship, and two years later FIDE awarded him the title of International Master (IM). He fulfilled the required IM standards at the 6th North American FIDE in October and November 2007 in Chicago , at the UTD GM Invitational in December 2007 in Richardson (Texas) and in March 2008 at the Reykjavík Open. Robson was the youngest International Master in the USA at the time.

He qualified for the 2007 adult national championship in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and at twelve was the youngest participant in the history of the US championships . With 3.5 out of 9 points he achieved a respectable result. In 2008 he was tied for first at the Florida Championship . The following year he won the US Junior Championship in Milwaukee ahead of Salvijus Berčys and Alex Lenderman . In 2009 he received the Samford Fellowship , a one-year scholarship for the most talented young player in the USA. Robson did not attend a public school but was homeschooled. His chess trainer is Alexander Onischuk .

In August 2009 Robson scored his first norm for the title of Grand Master at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø . He reached other standards at the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Skokie and in October of the same year at the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo . Robson thus fulfilled the requirements for the title award at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 16 days and replaced Anish Giri as the youngest grandmaster.

Robson took part in the World Chess Cup three times . While he failed in the first round in 2009 and 2011 , he reached the second round in 2013 with a victory against Andrij Wolokitin , in which he was defeated by Vasyl Ivanchuk .

National team

Robson competed with the United States team in the 2012 Chess Olympiad , the 2010 World Team Championships (in which the US finished second) and 2013, and the 2013 Pan-American Team Championship, which he won with the team. At the Chess Olympiad 2016 he was again in the USA team, which reached 1st place.