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Wesley Barbasa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino chess grandmaster representing the United States. A former chess prodigy, So became the youngest player to pass 2600 Elo rating in October 2008, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen. The record was later broken by Wei Yi, and then broken by John M. Burke. In early 2013, So passed 2700 rating and in February 2015 he entered the World top 10 after tying for second place at the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
Grand Chess Tour Paris 2016 Rapid Results
After 2 grueling days of rapid games, Hikaru Nakamura came out on top with 7 points (out of 9), half a point ahead of the world champion Magnus Carlsen (6.5 points).
Wesley So came in third with 5 1/2 points, tied with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, but ahead in tiebreak points.
Photo courtesy of the Grand Chess Tour.
Grand Chess Tour Paris 2016 Rapid Day 1 Results
After 5 rounds of rapid games, with a time-limit of 25 minutes for the whole game and a 10-second increment per move, Magnus Carlsen came out on top (after tiebreaks are applied). That, after he lost his very first game against Wesley So when his time expired.
Standings after day 1 and 5 rounds follow:
Wesley So beats Magnus Carlsen in Grand Chess Tour Paris 2016 — Rapid Round 1
The Grand Chess Tour 2016 has started, and first stop was Paris, France. The Paris leg is composed of 10-player Round Robin Rapid and 10-player Double Round Robin Blitz games. Check out results and standings of the tournament.
What made this tournament really exciting is that right at the start of the tournament, in round 1 of the rapid games, GM Wesley So defeated the World Champion Magnus Carlsen.
World Champion Magnus Carlsen is top favorite in Paris but the tournament did not start well for him. In the first round Carlsen played with White against Wesley So and with bold and creative play the World Champion reached a completely winning position in which he had two queens against queen and knight. But then he could not make up his mind which winning move he should play and lost on time – a bitter loss particularly so because the rapid games are played with a time-limit of 25 minutes for the whole game and a 10-second increment per move.
Apparently, Carlsen was winning the Rapid Round 1 game but lost on time.
Check out the game below. Also, you may also replay all round 1 games.
June 2016 FIDE Ratings List
No doubt, the reigning world champion is still on top with 2855, up 4 points from last month. But Vladimir Kramnik, from last month’s 2801, gained 11 more ELO points to take the second spot from Fabiano Caruana for this month’s official FIDE Ratings List June 2016.
Wesley So, although lost 5 points by virtue of his game 3 loss to Ding Liren, is still at No. 10, but now tied with Vishy Anand.
Here’s the current top 20 in the world:
Rk | Name | Fed | Rtg | Gms | B-Year |
1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2855 | 9 | 1990 |
2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2812 | 14 | 1975 |
3 | Caruana, Fabiano | USA | 2804 | 0 | 1992 |
4 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2792 | 9 | 1982 |
5 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2789 | 10 | 1990 |
6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2787 | 0 | 1987 |
7 | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2783 | 4 | 1992 |
8 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2782 | 9 | 1994 |
9 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2774 | 3 | 1990 |
10 | So, Wesley | USA | 2770 | 4 | 1993 |
11 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2770 | 0 | 1969 |
12 | Harikrishna, P. | IND | 2764 | 9 | 1986 |
13 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2761 | 9 | 1975 |
14 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2759 | 7 | 1976 |
15 | Li, Chao b | CHN | 2758 | 9 | 1989 |
16 | Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2751 | 9 | 1983 |
17 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 8 | 1983 |
18 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2746 | 9 | 1985 |
19 | Navara, David | CZE | 2744 | 11 | 1985 |
20 | Andreikin, Dmitry | RUS | 2743 | 9 | 1990 |
Chessbase lists the complete top 100 and discusses about the top climbers and descenders in the list, among others.
The ‘new’ youngest chess International Master (IM)
Praggnanandhaa is just 10 years and 10 months old, and he is about to receive his IM title soon, as he recently earned his third and final IM norm in Bhubaneswar in India.
The New Indian Express writes:
A couple of years on, the kid who slept during a game is one of the biggest stories in world chess. The 10-year-old from Chennai achieved his third and final International Master (IM) norm after beating a Grandmaster and holding two others at the KIIT International Festival of Chess in Bhubaneswar.
When I was 10 years old, I have yet to learn how to play the game of chess.
Thus, R Praggnanandhaa has at most 21 months to finish his GM norms in order to beat the current youngest GM ever, the challenger in this year’s world championship, Sergey Karjakin. We’re eager to watch out for that if he could indeed make it.
For your reference, the following is the list of the youngest GM’s, their age when they achieved them, their birthyears, and the year they achieved their GM title.
Wesley So vs. Garry Kasparov Round 10 Video Coverage
Watch how the Round 10 unfolded between Wesley So and Garry Kasparov of the US Ultimate Blitz Challenge 2016. After Wesley So smothered him in this blitz game, perhaps out of frustration or embarrassment (who knows?) — Garry Kasparov walked out immediately of the playing hall. Check out also how the commentators described how astonishing Wesley was playing in this game.
Ding Liren Inches Up Two Spots in the Live Ratings
After defeating Wesley So in the 2016 China-USA Chess Grandmaster Summit, Chinese GM Ding Liren advanced to spots in the Live Ratings as of today, May 12th, 2016.
Apparently, that event was rated.