RP chess prodigy Wesley So steps closer to Super Grandmaster norm

CEBU, Philippines - Whatever will be the result of the match between GM Wesley So and Russian Vladimir Malakhov in the current World Cup of Chess in Russia, the Filipino chess prodigy will breach the ELO rating of 2700 by next year.

The other day, So handling white, drew the first of the two-game match with Malakhov in 56 moves of Slav Defense. The two grandmasters were scheduled to play Game 2 yesterday.

A chess grandmaster who obtains an ELO rating of 2700 or above earns the title “super grandmaster” to distinguish him from other grandmasters with lower ratings.

GM Wesley So has a current ELO rating of 2640. When he breaches 2700, he will be the first Filipino chess player to do so. Asia’s first grandmaster Eugene Torre, in his prime, had an ELO rating of 2574.

Rounding up the top 10 RP chess players are GM Rogelio Antonio (2574, his highest, so far), GM Darwin Laylo (2552), GM Rogelio “Banjo” Barcenilla (2518), GM John Paul Gomez (2507), GM Eugenio Torre (2506), GM Mark Paragua (2497), IM Roland Salvador (2491), GM Joseph Sanchez (2487) and IM Julio Catalino Sadorra (2478).

GM So created a stir in the current World Chess Cup after he upset perennial world championship contender GM Vassily Ivanchuk and defending World Cup champion GM Gata Kamsky in the second and third rounds, respectively.

Ivanchuk was so distraught after his defeat that he hinted he would retire from active chess.

Now, what is an ELO rating?

An ELO rating is a method of calculating the strength of a chess player based on tournament performance. It is   named after Arpad Elo, an American physics professor of Hungarian descent, who invented the process.

The US Chess Federation started using the ELO rating in 1960. Then in 1970, FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) or commonly known as the World Chess Federation adopted the system to rate its players.

FIDE publishes the ratings of chess players every two months.

A chess player obtains his ratings when he participates in FIDE category tournaments.

Category tournaments are based on the average rating of participating players. The highest category is Category 21, meaning the average ratings of players are from 2751 to 2775. The average tournament, on the other hand is Category 1, or players with average rating of 2251 to 2275.

A chess player earns ELO points simply after his points (the points he scored after the tournament) are divided by the number of games played.

GM Vesselin Topalov of Bulgaria is current the highest rated chess player by FIDE with an ELO of 2810. Second is the GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway with 2801, followed by Viswanathan Anand of India with 2788.

The other top ten chess players in the world are GM Levon Aronian 2786 (Armenia), GM Vladimir Kramnik 2772 (Russia), GM Vugar Gashimov 2758 (Azerbajian), GM Boris Gelfand 2758 (Israel), GM Peter Svidler 2754 (Russia), GM Peter Leko 2752 (Hungary) and Alexander Morozevich 2750 of Russia.   (FREEMAN NEWS)