We were looking for another GM to give a lecture at the World Open, and Robert Hess happened to be standing around talking to some players (he wasn’t playing in the tournament), so we asked him if he wanted to do an impromptu lecture. He agreed, and this morning he gave a fantastic lecture on the game Ivanchuk-Kasparov from Linares 1991-- an amazing game where Ivanchuk mated Kasparov on move 38.
In short, Hess did a terrific job and on short notice to boot!
This gave me the idea that we should have these kind of special lectures by top American juniors at the national scholastics, on a regular basis. Currently the nationals feature celebrity GMs giving simuls and welcoming speeches, but I don’t think we’ve had top juniors giving lectures on games (or other appropriate topics) to the players in the national scholastics. I think this would be a unique way to inspire the players and get them excited about playing in the nationals, and would be a great new feature to offer the players and their families.