Grayson Rorrer

Grayson Rorrer from the Austin suburb of Lockhart, was awarded the International Master title earlier this year but clearly aims for more. Evidence for this comes from the title of his blog – grandmaster2b – where he recounts his quest to become a Grandmaster. He also has two of the three required norms for the title. One of them came in his breakthrough event, the 2024 Spice Cup, where he tied for third in a field packed with Grandmasters. Grayson scored 5 ½ points in his games with 8 GMs, gaining 37 FIDE rating points and advancing from 2427 to 2499 U.S.C.F.!

Grayson, who loves to write about chess and is a regular contributor to the American Chess Magazine, is old school when it comes to his study habits. While many young players do all their studying with a computer, Grayson likes books. A lot! He already had a collection of over 350 by the time he was 16. One of his favorites is Chess Duels: My Games with the World Champions by Yasser Seirawan