Wesley So

Wesley So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 7th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess. Before becoming a Grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months. He is the recent winner of the prestigious 2009 Corus chess tournament for the Grandmaster C group.

Wesley So's world ranking is 89th and is the strongest Under-16 player in the world. He is currently ranked 7th highest junior (Under-20) in the world. His current FIDE rating is 2641. In January 2005, So raised his rating from 2165 to 2216 the following year. In January 2007, he improved his mark to 2451 before reaching 2526 exactly a year later. Later in October 2008, he was at 2610 and by doing so, he became the youngest player ever in the history of the game to break the 2600 Elo barrier. In January 2009, he achieved a rating of 2627, a Philippines national record, surpassing the Elo 2621 rating of GM Mark Paragua in April 2006.

On the January 2009 FIDE rating list, GM So's ELO rating is 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 is 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 strong-rising Russian GM Sanan Sjugirov (born 1993, ELO 2545). The latest ratings put Wesley So on the 9th spot of the world top 20 juniors list. He won and is currently the Corus Group C 2009 champion besting his nearest rival by 1 point.