WESLEY SO: ANOTHER STORM THAT CROSSED NOT JUST THE PACIFIC!
By Reylan Loberternos
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 24 Jan 2011
Tungod, Inabanga, Bohol ? In a place where news items about Manny Pacquiao usually fill up the pages of newspapers?sports sections on a daily basis, and the boxer?s whereabouts are almost always the topic of sports conversations, one could end up missing out on some of the other newsworthy exploits of less popular sports heroes that Pinoys can also very well proudly call their own. Not this time, though? this one?s a little bit too huge to pass up on. Manny, I?m sure you wouldn?t mind. Please move over even just for a little while. This kid deserves to hit the headlines!
Seventeen-year-old Pinoy chess grandmaster Wesley So is taking the chess world by storm. Currently ranked 64th, So hopes to improve his world ranking with a stirring performance, thus far, leading the pack in Group B of the ongoing 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament, which began last January 14th in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands and culminates on the 30th. The only remaining unbeaten player in the tournament, So drew his first four matches. He is seeded 5th in a 14-player cast, behind five super-GMs with 2700+ ratings. So is on a four-game winning streak, besting fellow GM Wouter Spoelman of the Netherlands in his last assignment. He beat Ganguly of India, second seed Fresssinet of France and third seed Navara, too.
So is the 7th youngest ever to become a grandmaster and the first Filipino to join a category 17 chess event, where the average rating of participants is 2659. His performance rating after eight rounds in this ongoing tournament is at 2852. To better appreciate this mind-boggling feat, Garry Kasparov?s record all-time high rating is ELO 2849, which he set in January of 2001.
Though chess might not be as popular as a sport in the Philippines than boxing, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament has a wide audience from other parts of the globe. Over half a million people follow the event live on the internet daily via www.chessbomb.com alone.
Today is rest day with 5 rounds left. Hereunder are So?s next five assignments (in order).
white ? ? vs GM Li Chao CHN 2649
black ? ? vs GM Vlad Tkachiev FRA 2636
white ? ?vs GM Friso Nijboer NLD 2584
black ? ? vs GM Luke McShane ENG 2664 (erstwhile solo leader)
white ? ? vs GM Radek Wojtaszek POL 2726 (top seed and world No. 20)
So's current rating of 2692 would put him at 45th in the world right now. Should he win this Group B event, he will play in the most prestigious Group A next year, where the world?s best woodpushers battle it out for chess supremacy. Who are currently playing in Group A simultaneously? Well, just the No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 11 in the world right now, among others...
GM Magnus Carlsen ? ? ? ?NOR 2814
GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2810
GM Levon Aronian ? ? ? ?ARM 2805
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2784
GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2773
GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2751
GM Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 2744
Next year, as he turns 18, Wesley So, God-willing, could join the ranks of these chess greats. Let?s hope and pray that he makes it happen!
Comments are highly appreciated. You may send them to reylanloberternos@yahoo.com.ph Follow me on twitter reylan_l
P.S. Many thanks to Winchell Campos, rumored to be the person behind the ?kasparov? handle in the pacland forums (though he denies it), for sharing invaluable information regarding Wesley So.
Hereunder are articles written by the same byline:
The Science Behind a Punch
The Pacquiao-Drug-Issue Advocates: Envious or Just Plain Stupid?
The Truth Behind Manny Pacquiao?s Losses and Draws (Part 1)
The Truth Behind Manny Pacquiao?s Losses and Draws (Part 2)
Manny ?PACMAN? Pacquiao: Making A Serious Case As The Greatest Of All Time!
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Reylan Loberternos.
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