Despite tie for 2nd, So will be world No.7 by month end

MANILA, Philippines – A day before his death on January 21, former chess columnist Manny Benitez got wind of Wesley So‘s rise to number 6 in the world in live ELO rating during the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Netherlands.

Benitez told this writer while he was happy that So has been doing great guns, he was saddened that just because the US flag was beside him, people were downplaying his achievement since he had transferred to the US Chess Federation last year.

“How narrow-minded can some people be? He was born here and grew up here. He thought going to the US was the best way to improve,” said Benitez. Benitez wrote a weekly chess column that covered the half of the defunct Today newspaper’s sports page.

Benitez was a sub-editor at the South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Standard in the late 1970s. He covered chess events in Hong Kong because he liked doing it.

It was in Today’s pages that he wrote the first of many columns about the 10-year-old So in 2003, predicting a great future for the Cavite-born lad.

Had Benitez lived he would have been happy to see him tie for second place with three others at the Tata Steel tournament on Sunday, January 25. Despite a loss to his Dutch nemesis Anish Giri, So got a huge boost by gaining enough Elo points to be 7th in the world when the ELO ratings are released by the World Chess Federation at the end of the month.

“He will gain 26 points from winning the North American Open and a second place at Tata Steel. He will be seventh in the next FIDE list due out on Sunday,” said Eliseo Tumbaga, administrator of the Facebook site Chess Philippines. His site is just one of the many Philippine-based sites following So when he plays.

So had qualified for this year’s World Cup, which is a qualifying tournament for the world chess championship, set September in Azerbaijian because of his present Elo rating of 2762. With his expected 26 more Elo points, So will be rated 2788, 12 points short of 2800 rating which four players, led by world champion Magnus Carlsen, occupy.

Filipinos, who have been looking for a chess idol for years, feel euphoric that So will do great guns.

But his former coach at Webster University Paul Truong said in his Facebook page: “The next 6 months will be crucial. Top players will no longer underestimate him, and lower rated players will play more drawish lines against him. To be top 2-3, he needs to handle this.”

So did not enroll at Webster University this semester and chose to become a professional in December. – Rappler.com