Robert Lee Hess (born December 19, 1991) is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 2009.

[16] Chess journalist Jerry Hanken called Hess's achievement "one of the greatest performances by an American teenager since the heyday of Bobby Fischer!

The next month, he secured his third and final grandmaster norm in the Foxwoods Open, a performance which included an upset over Hikaru Nakamura.

[21] Hess was awarded the 2010 Samford Fellowship "based on his chess talent, work ethic, dedication and accomplishments".

[22] In December 2011 he tied for first–second with Alexander Kovchan in the Groningen Chess Festival, defeating Evgeny Romanov and Sergei Tiviakov on his way to a 2702 performance rating.

[27][28] Hess’s most recent major chess event is the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019, where he scored 5.5/11 and defeated then-reigning U.S. Champion Sam Shankland.

[33][34] Hess is a longtime commentator for Chess.com and was on the call for the 2021 World Chess Championship along with Daniel Rensch and Fabiano Caruana.