Wesley So

Wesley So
Full name	Wesley Barbasa So
Country	Philippines
Born	(1993-10-09) October 9, 1993 Bacoor, Cavite, Philippines
Title	Grandmaster (2008)
FIDE rating	2738 (February 2014) (No. 18 in the FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2719 (since November 2013)

Wesley So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino chess grandmaster. So achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest chess grandmaster in history.^[1] Before becoming a grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months. He won the 2009 Corus chess tournament in the Grandmaster C group.

As of January 2014, So is ranked No. 1 in the Philippines, No. 2 among juniors and No. 28 in the world. He previously was the strongest Under-16 player in the world.^[2] In October 2008, So was rated 2610 and thus became the youngest player ever in the history of the game to break the 2600 Elo barrier, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen.^[3] (His record was subsequently broken by Wei Yi.)^[4] In January 2009, he achieved a rating of 2627, a Philippine national record, surpassing the Elo 2621 rating of GM Mark Paragua achieved in April 2006.

Early life

So was born in Bacoor, Cavite in 1993 to William and Eleanor So, who are both accountants. He was aged 6 when his father taught him to play chess and was 9 when he started to compete in junior active chess tournaments, where his aggressive and tactical style of play caught the attention of former Philippine chess champion, International Master Rodolfo Tan Cardoso. Cardoso said, "The young lad ... would sacrifice a queen or any other pieces in his arsenal to get a winning attack." Also according to Cardoso, So did not have the full sponsorships enjoyed by the other chess prodigies, saying "He cannot afford decent training given by well known GM-coaches and has to rely on his pure talent, diligence and, of course, the Fritz programs before competing." So formerly attended the Jesus Good Shepherd School and went on to St. Francis of Assisi College in Bacoor.^[5]

In August 2012, So began his full-time study at Webster University^[6] in St. Louis under the SPICE program,^[7] which was founded by former women's world champion Susan Polgar. So is of Chinese Filipino descent.

Chess career

So claims his first major tournament win was taking 1st place at the 2003 Philippine National Chess Championships for the under 10 age group.^[8]

In 2006, So became the youngest member of the national men's team to participate at the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy at the age of 12. In December of the same year, he also became the youngest National Open Chess Champion. In May 2007, he went on to become the youngest National Junior Open Chess Champion. So won the gold medal on board one at the 2007 World Under 16 Team Championship with a score of 9½/10.

He achieved his third and final Grandmaster norm on December 8, 2007 at the third Pichay Cup International Open (Manila, Philippines), thus becoming the youngest Filipino grandmaster at the age of 14.^[9] He also became the seventh youngest to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess, edging out French GM Étienne Bacrot from that spot by a few days. So got his first GM norm in the Offene Internationale Bayerische Schach Meisterschaft in Bad Wiessee, Germany and his second GM norm in the 2007 U-20 World Junior Chess Championship in Yerevan, Armenia. Since December 2007, So has been considered to be the world's youngest grandmaster at the age of 14.

On April 16, 2008, So won the title in the $45,000 Dubai Open Chess Championships, "The Sheikh Rashed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup", at the Dubai Chess Club, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and setting a record as the youngest winner in the 10-year history of the Cup. He finished with 7 points on six wins, one loss and two draws after nine games. He won one-fourth ($4,500) of the combined prize of $18,000.^[10][11] So also placed third at the sidelight Blitz Tournament of the Dubai Open Chess Championships held during the rest day of the main open tournament.

The Philippines' top gun then proceeded to Jakarta, Indonesia where he battled Indonesia's Number 1 GM Susanto Megaranto 4-2 (three wins, two draws and one loss) in a six-game match on the occasion of the JAPFA Chess Festival.^[12]

On May 5, 2008, So won the top prize of P 200,000, in the "Battle of GMs" chess competition by notching 8½ points, on six wins and five draws, at the Citystate Hotel, Manila. One point ahead of second placer Eugenio Torre and Richard Bitoon, So agreed to split the point with three-time national junior champion Jon Paul Gomez in 30 moves of the French Defence.^[13]

On the January 2009 FIDE rating list, So's Elo rating was 2627, making him the highest ranked chess player in the Philippines ahead of other notable Filipino grandmasters such as Mark Paragua, Rogelio Antonio, Jr. and Eugenio Torre (who is second with 2560 Elo rating). He was rated the world's strongest chess player for his age level (players born in 1993 and later) with an Elo rating of 2627 ahead of Chinese GM Hou Yifan (born 1994, Elo 2557) and Russian GM Sanan Sjugirov (born 1993, Elo 2545). The latest ratings put So on the 9th spot of the world top 20 juniors list. He won the Corus Group C 2009 championship besting his nearest rival by one point.

So won the Top Junior Prize during Aeroflot 2009, with 5/9. His wins included one against then-IM Tatiana Kosintseva, who won the tournament's Top Woman Prize.

So won a seat in the World Cup by placing second during Zone 3.3 Chess Championship which was held on July 23–29, 2009 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

In November–December at the 2009 Chess World Cup he defeated Gadir Guseinov and scored victories over former world championship contenders Vassily Ivanchuk (Elo 2739) and Gata Kamsky (Elo 2695) before being knocked out by Vladimir Malakhov in Round 4.

In July 2011 he won the Philippine Chess Championship.^[14]

So won a gold medal for the Philippines at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia. It was the first gold medal for the country in the history of the tournament.^[15]

Results

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wesley So.

• Wesley So player profile and games at Chessgames.com Latest updates at chessgames.com
• Interview with Wesley So and Game Review from 2009 World Cup August 2011 Text Interview with Game Review
• Wesley So: The Next Pinoy Superstar Rooty Hill RSL Chess Club
• World's Youngest GM – GM Wesley So, age 14 ChessBase.com by IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso (10.12.2007)
• Pinoy Chess
• Latest News and Forum about Wesley So
• Private Blog about GM Wesley So
• 's-youngest-GM-comes-home Chess champ Wesley So, world's youngest GM, comes home, 04/22/2008
• So compared to Fischer by GM Torre
• Interview with Wesley So Chessdom
• Interview at the 2009 World Cup website