• 21 Apr 2011 at 3:29 PM

Wall Street Must Wait 4 Years For Grandmaster

By Bess Levin

Robert Hess, who interned at [Fortress] in 2008 and will attend Yale University in August, will try to see the future over the next seven days — on a chessboard. The 19-year-old grandmaster is alone atop his group in the first phase of the 2011 U.S. Championship in St. Louis, and has clinched a spot in the semifinals. In five months, he plans to use his chess skills to help study finance at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, and join the likes of Harvard University economics professor Ken Rogoff as grandmasters to attend the university. “These are the kinds of things that I like doing, strategizing and finding patterns,” Hess said in a telephone interview from St. Louis. Hess, who deferred from Yale for a year to play chess full time, worked a summer internship at Fortress. There, Hess analyzed entertainment stocks and developed an interest in finance. [Bloomberg via BI]

Comments (44)

  1. 1
    Posted by Guessed | April 21, 2011 at 7:38 PM

    Ugh, if only his last name started with a c…

  2. 2
    Posted by Guessed | April 21, 2011 at 7:38 PM

    Ugh, if only his last name started with a c…

  3. 3
    Posted by L Fishburn | April 21, 2011 at 7:43 PM

    Bring your Ivy league ass down to Washington Square for a real match punk

  4. 4
    Posted by L Fishburn | April 21, 2011 at 7:43 PM

    Bring your Ivy league ass down to Washington Square for a real match punk

  5. 5
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:44 PM

    well I’m a connect 4 grandmaster, beat that!
    -UBS Summer analyst

  6. 6
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:44 PM

    well I’m a connect 4 grandmaster, beat that!
    -UBS Summer analyst

  7. 7
    Posted by Chappy Sinclair | April 21, 2011 at 7:53 PM

    Yeah, but can he fit his entire fist in his mouth and bench press 350 pounds?

  8. 8
    Posted by Chappy Sinclair | April 21, 2011 at 7:53 PM

    Yeah, but can he fit his entire fist in his mouth and bench press 350 pounds?

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:54 PM

    Tic-Tac-Toe grandmaster 4 years running
    -Oswald J. Grübel

    bitch

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:54 PM

    Tic-Tac-Toe grandmaster 4 years running
    -Oswald J. Grübel

    bitch

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:54 PM

    Tic-Tac-Toe grandmaster 4 years running
    -Oswald J. Grübel

    bitch

  12. 12
    Posted by Well There You Go | April 21, 2011 at 7:55 PM

    Didn’t all these smart, chess playing, poker playing, MIT math degree holding, MBAs and CFAs from good schools just recently kill all the global financial markets?

    Other than that, I have no concerns.

  13. 13
    Posted by Well There You Go | April 21, 2011 at 7:55 PM

    Didn’t all these smart, chess playing, poker playing, MIT math degree holding, MBAs and CFAs from good schools just recently kill all the global financial markets?

    Other than that, I have no concerns.

  14. 14
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:58 PM

    “There, Hess analyzed entertainment stocks and developed an interest in finance.”

    If his analysis of entertainment stocks was anything other than “entertainment stocks are a bottomless pit of failed investments for fools”, I’d recommend he stick with the chess.

  15. 15
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 7:59 PM

    Minesweeper. Bring it.

  16. 16
    Posted by Confused Guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:00 PM

    Yes, and now there are new markets to be killed.

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    Jenga, SON

  18. 18
    Posted by NakedShort | April 21, 2011 at 8:06 PM

    Why? Would Cess be funny?

    -UBS MD

  19. 19
    Posted by Financial_Servicer | April 21, 2011 at 8:06 PM

    No, I believe Jimmy Cayne plays bridge.

  20. 20
    Posted by Bill Brasky | April 21, 2011 at 8:08 PM

    I bet an unanswered round of Roshambo in the men’s room at Minetta’s that this dude is a total d-bag

  21. 21
    Posted by Shecky Kasparov | April 21, 2011 at 8:11 PM

    The momentum guys at Fortress were having dinner one night with Hess, checking him out and all – Problem was, they had a checkered tablecloth and it took Hess two hours to pass the salt!

  22. 22
    Posted by GM | April 21, 2011 at 8:13 PM

    Get with the times. Angry Birds GrandMaster here.

  23. 23
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:17 PM

    “I’m not impressed.” George Soros

    “Fortress sucks.” Everyone on Wall St.

  24. 24
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:23 PM

    Bravo! I enjoyed that.

  25. 25
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:26 PM

    How will I know it’s you in the bathroom?

  26. 26
    Posted by Nails | April 21, 2011 at 8:30 PM

    I bet I’d be good at chess. I give out checks in order to mate from time to time.

    -L. Dykstra
    Spoor, CA

  27. 27
    Posted by Bill Brasky | April 21, 2011 at 8:31 PM

    Yes, sorry about that, I am the guy looking like a Polish Alec Baldwin…can’t miss me.

  28. 28
    Posted by Guest, CFA | April 21, 2011 at 8:35 PM

    No, we CFA’s never made it to that top level.

  29. 29
    Posted by Mexi-Cant | April 21, 2011 at 8:42 PM

    I was a summer intern at Fortress, in PE also not the shitty macro fund that Hess was in. Nobody is waiting for me :(

  30. 30
    Posted by Anal_ist | April 21, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    Tell him to get his Powerpoint to Citi HR STAT!

  31. 31
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:43 PM

    this dude is asking for a swirly.

  32. 32
    Posted by Memeless | April 21, 2011 at 8:50 PM

    Grandmaster Flash crunches numbers? Tight.

    - Roc-a-fella MD

  33. 33
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 8:59 PM

    Lousy kids.

  34. 34
    Posted by Financial_Servicer | April 21, 2011 at 9:01 PM

    And I suspect “killing all the global financial markets” might conflict with “promoting the integrity of capital markets.”

  35. 35
    Posted by sad guest | April 21, 2011 at 9:13 PM

    “Patrick Wolff, a former Yale student and Harvard graduate who won the U.S. Championship in 1992 and shared the honor in 1995, worked at Peter Thiel’s Clarium Capital Management LLC before launching Grandmaster Capital Management LLC on Jan. 1. ”

    Learning how to turn 1 billion into 200 million strategically is…something

  36. 36
    Posted by Lewis Winthorpe III | April 21, 2011 at 9:14 PM

    So we can just kick you in the nuts so we know it’s you?

  37. 37
    Posted by Guest | April 21, 2011 at 9:23 PM

    he was also a quarterback in high school.

  38. 38
    Posted by Andre | April 21, 2011 at 10:13 PM

    He recommended a long position in Blockbuster.

    - Fortress MD

  39. 39
    Posted by ade | April 22, 2011 at 2:58 AM

    hahaha

  40. 40
    Posted by Anonymous | April 22, 2011 at 1:21 PM

    Knight jumps queen! Bishop jumps queen! Pawns jump queen! Gangbang!

  41. 41
    Posted by Breasticles | April 22, 2011 at 1:56 PM

    One-eye snake master wrangler here.
    -L. Tilton

  42. 42
    Posted by CFA | April 22, 2011 at 8:13 PM

    Die

  43. 43
    Posted by PF | April 25, 2011 at 3:03 PM

    it’s killing it. Literally killing it. All of it. All of your AUM

  44. 44
    Posted by Anonymous | April 25, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    Somebody explain to him that this business isn’t chess; it’s backgammon.

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