MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So hopes to start the year on the right foot as he faces off with top American Grandmaster Hiraku Nakamura today in a blitz death match between the United States top two chessers, who are also the world’s ninth and 10th highest-ranked players.
So, who is coming off a banner year with four first place finishes and a runner-up effort that pushed him up from No. 28 to No. 10 in the FIDE ranking, will play Nakamura for three straight hours starting at 1 a.m. (Phl time) using time controls of 5/1 (five minutes and one second increment), 3/1 and 1/1.
In classical rankings, So, now playing for the US federation, and Nakamura are pretty even, with the former having a current rating of 2770.7 as against the latter’s 2776.
But the two will play blitz where Nakamura has a rating of 2883, second only to reigning world champion and blitz king Magnus Carlsen’s 2948. So, on the other hand, has a blitz rating of 2721.
So, however, will come into the showdown oozing with confidence after he topped the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba, the ACP Golden Classic in Bergamo Italy and the Millionaire Chess Open and the North American Open in Las Vegas last year and wound up runner-up in the Edmonton Open in Alberta, Canada.
The Cavite-born So is also using this match as the final tuneup for the ultra-competitive 77th Tata Steel Masters set Jan. 10 (Phl time) in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands where he will be pitted against the world’s best headed by men’s world champion Magnus Carlsen and women’s titlist Hou Yifan.
So is also hoping to breach the 2800-plateau this year and challenge for the world title after dropping out of school to turn full-time professional.