Wesley So

Who is Wesley So?

Wesley So is a Filipino chess grandmaster. So achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest chess grandmaster in history. Before becoming a grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months. He won the 2009 Corus chess tournament in the Grandmaster C group.

As of January 2014, So is ranked No. 1 in the Philippines, No. 2 among juniors and No. 28 in the world. He previously was the strongest Under-16 player in the world. In October 2008, So was rated 2610 and thus became the youngest player ever in the history of the game to break the 2600 Elo barrier, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen. In January 2009, he achieved a rating of 2627, a Philippine national record, surpassing the Elo 2621 rating of GM Mark Paragua achieved in April 2006.