GM Wesley So rises to no. 7 in world rankings

MANILA, Philippines -- Grandmaster Wesley So is officially the No. 7 highest-rated chesser in the world during FIDE's monthly rankings released on Sunday.

Only 21 years old, So has a 2788 rating and emerged the biggest gainer among the top 100 in the last month as he amassed a whopping 26 points after topping the North American Open in Las Vegas and finishing tied for first and half a point behind eventual 77th Tata Steel Masters champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway in Wijk an Zee, The Netherlands last week.

So also gained a total of 69 rating points for the whole year that vaulted him from 28th in the world last year to No. 7 in 2015.

And his recent performance in Tata showed he is at par, if not better, than the best the world can offer having drawn with no less than Carlsen himself and World No. 2 GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy and beat the likes of former World Challenger GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and World No. 9 Armenian GM Levon Aronian.

And the Cavite-born So, who is representing the United States now, has been drawing a lot of raves including chessbase.com, which called him the "new star in the American sky."

"Since January of last year, he has added 69 Elo, also a fantastic rise, but what really stood out was his excellent play in the last Wijk aan Zee," chessbase.com said of So. "It isn't merely a question of rating points, but how he handled himself against the elite in his first full-fledged foray.

"All the top players say the same thing: one of the most distinct differences with the top players and the rest is their sheer resilience and ability to keep the fight going. Wesley So handled the transition superbly."

Czech-born GM Lubomir Kavalek, a chess Hall of Fame inductee who is also world renowned coach, and US non-playing team captain John Donaldson were also all-praises of the ex-Webster University standout.

"Ivanchuk was caught by Carlsen in round seven and in the next round faced Wesley So, 21. Computers are one reason why the game is getting younger and So is the master of his laptop. He is so good that he became a coach of the U.S. team at the 2013 World Team Championship and 2014 Chess Olympiad," said Kavalek.

"Wesley (So) was extremely helpful," said Donaldson. "He knows an incredible amount about opening theory, likes to work on chess all the time, has a pleasant manner and is willing to share."

So, however, isn't stopping from there as he will be participating in several tournaments in the coming months with hopes of breaching the 2800-rating barrier only four active players achieved--Carlsen, Caruana, Russian GM Alexander Grischuk and Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov.

So will see action in the Bunratty Chess Festival slated from Feb. 20-22 in Bunratty, Country Clare in Ireland where the strongest foe is former World Challenger GM Nigel Short of England while also agreeing to join club team Clichy in the French League from May 30 to June 9 and tackle Czech Republic's GM David Navarra in four classical games from June 12 to 16 in Prague.

From there, So will proceed to Turkey for the team tournament there set from Aug. 3-15 in Istanbul before returning to the US to defend his title in the Millionaire Chess Open in Las Vegas in October after topping the same event and pocketing $100,000 in the process a year ago.

Earlier booked in his busy schedule are the US Championships from March 31 to April 14in Saint Louis, Missouri where he will battle GM Hikaru Nakamura in a duel of the US' highest ranked chessers and the World Cup set Sept. 10-Oct. 4 in Baku, Azerbaijan.