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Wesley So: The Next Pinoy Superstar

Wesley So

During the club championship last year Leo Tenorio asked when I was going to write something about something Wesley So for the web page. I must confess I hadn't heard of Wesley until that moment but he's a young man with considerable talent and looks certain to take his place in world chess.

Pictured at right is a 2005 photograph of 11 year-old Wesley after his four-way dead-heat in the World Youth Championship. Like Australia's Raymond Song, he was relegated to fourth after the tie-break.

He'll never be a Rooty Hill member, but with so many Pinoys in the club there's bound to be a lot of interest—and so, Leo, here's what I discovered:

Wesley So, Age 12, Youngest Chess Olympian

Under this heading Newsflash, an online Filipino news service, carried the following story:
MANILA, APRIL 20, 2006 (STAR) Wesley So started to play chess when he was six-year-old. Six years later, he became the youngest Filipino ever to make it to the Olympiad squad.
So, a 12-year-old FIDE Master, scored 3.5 points in five games to join seeded GMs Mark Paragua, Eugene Torre and Joey Antonio and fellow qualifiers Darwin Laylo and FM Oliver Dimakiling in the squad bound for the World Chess Olympiad slated May 19-June 5 in Turin, Italy.
"I taught him chess when he was six years old," said Wesley,s proud father William, a self-employed school bus driver, in Filipino. "Now, he has improved a lot because he played with so much dedication and really loves the game."
Wesley, whose biggest achievement to date was a joint first place finish in the World Youth Chess Championship in Belfort, France, is set to leave for Dubai Friday night to compete in a strong tournament serving as part of his buildup for the Olympiad.
The first year high school student at St. Francis of Assisi in Bacoor, Cavite, a Shell active chess champion, is the most celebrated age-grouper in the country today. He was actually one of "Promil Kids" featured in television commercials.
While the load of the Olympiad campaign will rest on the shoulders of veteran campaigners Torre, Antonio and Paragua, Wesley remains hopeful of being able to deliver some points in the lower board in his Olympiad debut as one of the alternates of the squad.

As an "alternate" Wesley could not expect to be selected for every round and, in the event, played only five of the thirteen possible games. From those games his record was excellent. He defeated Marie (Mauritius 2211) and IM Pazos (Equador 2371), and drew with FM Britner (Luxembourg 2325) and IM Mendoza (Colombia 2401). He lost only one game—to GM Vadya (Romania 2511).

Pinoy chess wonder is country's youngest IM
Leaping forward a few months the above headline appeared in the Sun Star, Davao, on October 10 when Wesley's IM title was confirmed. The news story follows:
It was a double celebration for the Filipino chess whiz kid Monday.
Not only did Wesley So celebrate his 13th birthday, he also earned his full-fledged International Master (IM) title according to the report of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) website based in October 2006 list.
Wesley Barbasa So, a freshman high school student from St. Francis Assisi in Bayanan, Bacoor, Cavite is now the country's youngest ever IM with an Elo Fide rating of 2411 from original 2330 in the July rating list
The article went on to say that Wesley had qualified for his IM title at 12 years and 10 months. The previous youngest Filipino IM had been Mark Paragua (now a GM) who was made an IM at 14 years and 8 months.

Wesley is fortunate to live in a country where chess is valued so highly and there is no doubt that he will get all the assistance needed to capitalise on his natural ability. And because the Philippines is located so close to the rest of Asia he will have many opportunities to hone his skills against top international opposition.

Wesley So

After the above story was posted I received a friendly email from Wesley,s mother, Eleanor, who supplied the following information and photograph.
Thank you, Leny. It's appreciated.


Wesley B. So
Home:   Bacoor, Cavite Philippines
Age:   13
Birthdate:   October 9, 1993
School:   St. Francis of Assisi College System, Bacoor     
Parents:   William and Eleanor So – both parents are accountants   
FIDE Title:   International Master; Grandmaster Elect
Current Rating:   2451

Eleanor So in Sydney
This is Wesley,s mum, Eleanor So, on Sydney Harbour last year. She was part of a team
investigating a possible linkage of the De La Salle University's Nursing Course with the
Australian Catholic University

Wesley's International Achievements
2007 Mar 1-9 15th Asian Cites Chess Team Championship (Tehran, Iran)
Award: Gold Medal for Board 3
2006 Dec 25-313rd Singapore Masters International Open, Singapore
Tied for 4th place.   Rank 14 (99 players)
2006 Nov 17-23 1st President GMA Cup International Chess Tournament, Paranaque, Manila     
Award: Top Juniors, 3rd. Tied for 6th place.
2006 Nov 04-12 Offene Internationale Bayerische Schaha Meisterschaft, Bad Wiessee, Germany
Award: Tied for 3rd place.  Earned first GM norm.
Creativity Award: chosen by Russian website e3e5.
2006 Oct 20-28 III Festival de Ajedrez Open Internacionale, Calvia Spain
Award:  Best Under-16, Blitz.
2006 Oct 08 Title awarded by FIDE:   International Master
2006 Aug 20-28 3rd IGB Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship, Kuala Lumpur
Award:  Best Under 16 player. Earned 3rd IM norm.
2006 Jun 05-11 2nd San Marino Open Internationale de Scacchi, San Marino Republic
Award: Best Under 16 player. Earned 2nd IM norm.
2006 May20-Jun04  37th World Chess Olympiad, Torino, Italy.
Youngest RP Olympian.
2006 Apr22-May02 8th Dubai Open Chess Championship, Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamadan Ak Maktoum Cup,
Dubai, UAE
Earned 1st IM norm.
2005 Dec 26-30 Masters/Challengers Intl Open, Singapore.
Finished 32nd individual.   Award: Best Under 12 player.
2005 Aug 01-06 Nice Open International, Nice:   Finished 9th
2005 Jul 18-29 World Youth Chess Championship, Belfort, France.   Equal first.
2005 June 14-20 7th Asean Age-Group Chess Championship, Pattaya, Thailand
Individual Awards: Gold Medallist, Standard Chess;
Gold Medallist, Rapid Chess; Gold Medallist, Blitz Chess.
2004 Dec 01-08 World Youth Chess Championship, Crete.
Finished:  13th.
2004 Sep 02-12 6th Asean Age-Group Chess Championship, Vung Tau, Vietnam
Individual Awards:  Gold Medallist, Standard Chess;  Gold Medallist,
Rapid Chess. Team Awards: Silver Medallist, Standard Chess, Silver Medallist Rapid Chess.
2003 Nov 03-10 World Youth Chess Championship, Heraklio, Greece.
Finished:  19th.

Creativity Award
In November the Quezon City Chess Plaza Weekender ran a story about one of Wesley's games, played the week before in an international tournament at Bad Wiessee, Germany. The game attracted the attention of the Russian website "e3e5.com" as one of the most creative played in the world that week. You can visit the site HERE. This link is to the English language section, but if you go to the Games archive the Cyrillic headings will alternate with English when you run your mouse pointer over them.

Wesley should have been pleased! His companions on the page, among others, included Aronian, Morozevich, Shirov, Gelfand, Leko, Svidler, Ivanchuk, Van Wely, Bacrot and Grischuk.

His opponent (victim?) was German GM Michael Prusikin. You can play through the game by selecting it from the list at the foot of this page, or you can simply click on it HERE.

Wesley is well on the way to becoming the Philippines' next grandmaster. He's not going to be the youngest in history—that honour belongs to Sergey Karjakin, but already he's a long way ahead of Bobby Fischer, who earned his title at 15 years and 6 months.

Congratulations on your achievements so far, Wesley. We wish you well for the future.

Some links.

Wesley is now getting quite a lot of press coverage and has been mentioned in Susan Polgar's blog. Titled, A 12 year old boy makes Olympiad team, the story originated with with Manila Times so I'll direct this link directly to the source, rather than Susan's copy. CLICK HERE to read it.

During last year's Dubai Open the official web site had a pictorial feature titled, Youngsters Who Beat Grandmasters and shows four gifted juniors who achieved just that. Wesley secured an IM norm in this tournament and finished equal 45th—albeit just two points behind the winning triumvirate of grandmasters: Fedorchuk, Sargissian and Petrosian. CLICK HERE to visit the web page and see the photograph.

Here's one from the Closet Grandmaster.   Wesley So Wins Open
Pinoy international master Wesley So, just 13-years old, has just finished on top of a strong field in the 2nd Prospero "Butch" Pichay Open in the Philippines. Scoring 7 points, he outpoined two grandmasters and a strong field of his fellow IMs. For his win, Wesley goes home with a cheque for P100,000.
To read the rest of this article visit the Closet Grandmaster:  CLICK HERE.

Here's a piece from IndoChess by Bobby Ang. It's titled Wesley So gets GM norm and you can read it HERE.

Wesley's Games
Listed below are Wesley's games from the Torino Olympiad, his victory over GM Ian Rogers, and his creativity prize against GM Prusikin at Bad Wiessee. If you would like to play through more of his games you may find them at ChessGames.com by clicking HERE.

And although it has nothing directly to do with a story about Wesley you could do worse than add http://www.chessgames.com to your list of favourites. It's a wonderful database with games from players as diverse as Wesley So and Humphrey Bogart! Pay them a visit HERE. Membership is free (unless you want to take advantage of a few additional member benefits).

Here are some of Wesley's published games. Click on the links to play through them with Chessgenie:

                              —Story:   David Evans