Young Superstars: Wesley So

Submitted by WTHarvey on Tue, 11/06/2007 at 9:52am.

Wesley So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino chess International Master who was the youngest member of the national men’s team to the Chess Olympiad (2006 - Turin, Italy) at the age of 12. He also holds the record of being the youngest National Open Chess Champion, in the last December 2006 tournament as well as the youngest National Junior Open Chess Champion last May 2007. As of October 2007, his elo rating is 2531 making him ranked 3rd in the Philippines behind Joey Antonio and Eugenio Torre. With that rating, he is the strongest chess player in the world in his age group and younger. Wesley So won the World Under 16 Team Championship Board 1 gold medal with a score of 9.5 out of 10.

So got his second Grandmaster norm in the 2007 World Junior Chess Championship in Armenia, just needing one more norm to be accorded the title of Grandmaster. He got his first GM norm in the Offene Internationale Bayerische Schaha Meisterschaft, Bad Wiessee, Germany. Other achievements include: 2005 Jul 18-29 World Youth Chess Championship, Belfort, France. Equal first. 2006 Apr22-May02 8th Dubai Open Chess Championship, Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamadan Ak Maktoum Cup, Dubai, UAE where he earned his 1st IM norm. 2006 Jun 05-11 2nd San Marino Open Internationale de Scacchi, San Marino Republic Award: Best Under 16 player. He earned his 2nd IM norm. 2006 Aug 20-28 3rd IGB Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship, Kuala Lumpur Award: Best Under 16 player. And earned his 3rd IM norm. 2006 Oct 08 Title awarded by FIDE: International Master. 2006 Oct 20-28 III Festival de Ajedrez Open Internacionale, Calvia Spain Award: Best Under-16, Blitz. 2006 Nov 17-23 1st President GMA Cup International Chess Tournament, Paranaque, Manila Award: Top Juniors, 3rd. Tied for 6th place. 2007 May 06-09 - National Juniors Open Chess Championship. Marketplace, Kalentong. Champion. 2007 Jun 18-20 - Shell Battle of Champions, 15th Anniversary. Megamall, Ortigas. Champion.

Here are some crucial positions from his games:

Black Mates in 3.

» posted in Chess players

2366 reads | 16 comments |

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Comments:

by jaykee - 2 months ago
Cebu City Philippines

Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 2

btw regards from ya' lola mitzi and lolo edwin . . .

by jaykee - 2 months ago
Cebu City Philippines

Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 2

Yeah amazing kid not even worthy to be called a kid anymore (lol). From your relatives here from negros, were very proud of you and keep it up!

Ya' uncle jk. . .

by bisdak324 - 7 months ago
iligan city Philippines

Member Since: Nov 2007
Member Points: 5

mabuhay ang pinoy! certainly another GM in the making. goodluck and godbless Wesley So. you make us proud

by bisdak324 - 7 months ago
iligan city Philippines

Member Since: Nov 2007
Member Points: 5

mabuhay ang pinoy! certainly another GM in the making. goodluck and godbless Wesley So. you make us proud

by miyagi - 7 months ago
Phillip Island Australia

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 52

nice combinations

by saint_kevin - 7 months ago
philippines,tarlac Philippines

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 18

I'm proud to be Filipino

I'm only 13 year old but I love playing chess

i want to become like So

I'm proud to be pinoy(filipino)

by Geeroh - 7 months ago
Manila Philippines

Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 3

"...With that rating, he is the strongest chess player in the world in his age group and younger... "

According to Bobby Ang in his November 2, 2007 column published in BusinessWorld (Phil.)

Wesley is already the strongest 14-year old in the world today. Here is the top 10 according to the latest FIDE Rating List (As of October 2007):

1 IM Wesley So PHI 2531
2 GM Parimarjan Negi IND 2514
3 WG Hou Yifan CHN 2502
4 IM Yaroslav Zherebukh UKR 2450
5 SP Sethuraman IND 2427
6 IM Sanan Sjugirov RUS 2422
7 FM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan ARM 2389
8 FM Ilya Nyzhnyk UKR 2377
9 Nils Grandelius SWE 2377
10 FM Oliver Mihok HUN 2371