“If there were no women and chess and wine, I would not have wished to have been born a man.”-Dr. Siegbert Tarrach, 1862-1934
Wesley So is taking the world chess stage like a storm.
And at the rate the 23 year old Filipino super-grandmaster who chose to play for the United States is going, only a crack at the world title held by the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen separates him from ultimate chess glory.
Yet even now he is staring down at the rest of the world. With an ELO rating of 2808, he is already ranked third in the world, behind ‘fellow’ American Fabiano Caruna (2827) and Carlsen (2840).
With a couple of rounds to go (as this piece is being written), he is currently in the lead of the 2017 Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands with seven out of 10 points, a point ahead of Carlsen himself.
The tournament, held in the town of Wijk aan Zee, is dubbed the “Wimbledon of Chess,’ because it is the strongest annual event in chess. Its annual staging never fails to draw most of the world’s top 20 grandmasters under one roof in a battle of wits and preparation. Most often, the list of entries would include former titleholders and challengers waiting for just the opportunity to put one over the rest in Wijk aan Zee.
So is on fire and the world is finally taking notice. He closed out 2016 by winning the Grand Chess Tour in London and the prize of $75,000 in a field that included Carlsen. In all, he collected $295,000 last year from a string of tournament victories. Not too bad for a kid who left the Philippines for the United States when this country’s chess federation, in my opinion, simply was at a loss on how to handle a genius in its midst.
After his London win, former world champion Garry Kasparov posted a message:
“Congratulations to Wesley So for winning the #GrandChessTour! He showed great consistency and, bad news for opponents, he’s still improving.—Gary Gasparov”
He was also proving hard to beat. A 53-game winning streak compiled in 2016 allowed So to leap-frog in rating and proved he was no flash in the pan but a real gem in the trough that is certain to brighten up the chess galaxy for some time to come.
Fabiano Caruana, his teammate in the American team, would later comment on So: “Something must have clicked for him because he’s improved a lot, at least in terms of results recently. He doesn’t go on rampages or anything, but he quietly accumulates points.”
To understand the company that So keeps, only a few mortals managed to breach the 2800 mark. Kasparov once skyrocketed to 3096 but has since settled to 2851 and has not been active of late. Aside from Carlsen, Caruano and So, the following are in that elite company, to include Levon Aronian (Armenia) with 2830, Maxime Vachier La Grave 2819, Viswanathan Anand 2817, Vladimir Kramnik 2817, Veselin Topolov 2816, Hikamura 2816 and Alexander Grischuk 2801.
Former world champion Anatoly Karpov, who beat Korchnoi in Baguio City in 1973, managed to reach 2876 but has since pulled out of competition.
Robert Bobby Fischer, the world champion in the late 1960s who came to Davao in 1967 to play a match with national master Jose Pascual, went up only to 2690 while Boris Spaasky whom Fischer defeated to win the title posted only 2480.
Eugene Torre, the Filipino chess icon, managed to peak at 2580 but has since skidded to 2495 as of the 2017 ratings.
And by contrast, the highest rated Filipino player right now is Julio C. Sadorra with 2587, followed by Oliver Barbosa at 2518, Torre at 2495, Mark Paragua at 2490, John Paul Gomez 2490, Rogelio Antonio 2481, Joseph Sanchez 2475, Rogelio Barcenilla 2455, Richard Bitoon 2454, and Darwin Laylo 2451.
Barring a last-round loss, So is on course to add the Wijk aan Zee super-tournament to his list of impressive accomplishments. Chess like boxing and not basketball, indeed holds part of the key to this country’s search for sports greatness.
Below is a typical So masterpiece accomplished when he was only in his teens.
During So’s tournament victory at Bad Wiessee in 2006, he earned a creativity award in the Russian magazine e3e5 for the following game, where he won in spectacular fashion:
- e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e5 Nfd7 6. Bxe7 Qxe7 7. f4 a6 8. Nf3 b6 9. Qd2 c5 10. Nd1 O-O 11. c3 f6 12. Bd3 a5 13. O-O Ba6 14. exf6 Qxf6 15. Ng5 g6 16. Ne3 h5 17. Rae1 Bxd3 18. Qxd3 cxd4(see diagram)19. Nxe6 Qxe6 20. Nxd5 Qf7 21. Re7 Qf5 22. Qxd4 Nf6 23. Re5 Qd7 24. Qd3 Nxd5 25. Qxg6 Qg7 26. Qe6+ Qf7 27. Qh6 Qf6 28. Rg5+ Kf7 29. Qh7+ Ke8 30. Rxd5 1-0
