So eyes Top 20 world ranking

MANILA, Philippines – For Wesley So, patience is a virtue.

So, who turned just 20 years old last Oct. 9 but is currently ranked 30th in the world with a FIDE rating of 2719, is taking it a step at a time as he tries to move in the Top 20 in the world first before even having notion that he could challenge for the world championship.

 â€œMy goal is to reach 2750 in 2014,” So, who won five tournaments this year, including the all-GM 17th Unive Chess Tournament in Hoogeveen, the Netherlands last October but skipped the just concluded Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar where the Phl went home gold medal-less, told The STAR.

Hungarian GM Susan Polgar emphasized the importance of not rushing it for his pupil.

“It is best to have short term goals. Wesley (So) accomplished his goals in 2013, now he will work on his goals in 2014,” said Polgar, former women’s world champion and Olympiad gold medalist who coaches So and reigning NCAA Division I champion Webster U.

So was very much in the zone that he won five tournaments –  the Reykjavik Open in Iceland last February, Calgary Chess Classic in Canada in May, Las Vegas Chess Festival in the US in June, and the Universiade in Kazan, Russia in August before capping a great year with a win at Hoogeveen.

“In 2013, Wesley broke the 2700 level, won the World University and College Chess Final Four, etc., he just fulfilled them all,” said Polgar.

To achieve his new goal, So is eyeing to perform well in the Pan Am Championship from Dec. 27 to 30 in Lubbock, Texas, where the best college teams from North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean battle it out as the region’s best.

From there, So will fly straight to Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands for the Tata Steel Chess 2014 tournament where is one of the only 12 GMs invited to join the Category 20 event boasting of a super high rating average of 2743.

So will play against eight participants ranked higher than him — Armenian Levon Aronian (2803, second), American Hikaru Nakamura (2786, fourth), Italian Fabiano Caruana (2782, 7th) , Isreali Boris Gelfand (2777, eighth), Russian Sergey Karjakin (2756, 12th), Cuban Leinier Dominguez (2754, 14th), German Arkadi Naiditsch (2737, 18th) and Dutch Anish Giri (2734, 20th).