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 person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of
chess.
[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.
So's world ranking is 104th as of March 2012. He previously was the
strongest Under-16 player in the world. So's current FIDE rating is
2653.
[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]
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.
As of May 2012, So has an Elo rating of 2653. He is currently the
top-ranked player in the Philippines, no.4 Under-20 in the world, and
ranked 104th in the world.
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.
[5]
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.
[6]
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 fourteen.
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.
[7][8]
GM 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.
[9]
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.
[10]
On the January 2009
FIDE rating list, GM 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.
[11]
Red more.... :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_So
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