World's Youngest GM � GM Wesley So, age 14

12/10/2007 � No, he is not from China, Russia or India. The latest grandmaster, who
has earned his final norm at the tender age of 14 years, one month and 28 days, is
Wesley So from the Philippines (where two months earlier another GM, Darwin Laylo,
emerged). Wesley is currently the youngest GM in the world, and the seventh
youngest in the history of the game. Portrait by IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso.
I first saw Wesley during the junior active chess tournaments in 2003 in Manila. He
was then a young lad who would sacrifice a queen or any other pieces in his arsenal
to get a winning attack. He was well ahead of his foes, indeed at nine years old he
won the National Kiddies Tournament for 14-Under, and at 13 he won the National
Juniors (20 Under) and the Philippine National Open (Open to all).
2005 was a breakthrough year for Wesley. First his official FIDE rating was
published, then in July he tied for first in the World Youth U12 Festival, ahead of
chess prodigies GM Negi and WGM Hou Yi Fan, among others. The following year was
even better; he qualified for the Philippines chess team in the 2006 Torino Chess
Olympiad, at 12 years old, with a plus score performance in five games at board
six. He also completed his IM title requirements before he celebrated his 13th
birthday. Finally, before the end of the year, he made his first GM norm with a
fantastic performance at Bad Wiessee, Germany, which included a win against GM
Pruskin, which was given a Creativity Award by a big Russian website.
The road to the GM title was not that easy: there were near misses, and his is
studies as a high school student had to be given priority. Compared to other
prodigies, who had full sponsorship backing all the time needed, GM-elect So has
received only breadcrumbs and has no luxury of full-time practice. He cannot afford
a decent training given by well known chess GM-coaches, and had to rely to his pure
talent, diligence and of course the Fritz programs before competing. He rarely
plays in international tournament, except for those international local
tournaments.

He could have completed his GM norm at 13 years old; he missed the GM norm by one
point in the GMA Cup (2006) in Manila, when he lost to GM Belov of Russia in the
last round. He missed it by half-point in the Zone 3.3 Zonal Tournament (2007) in
Vietnam. Also, he has 2600+ performances during the National Championships (2006),
15th Asian Cites Chess Team Championship (2007) in Iran, where he won the gold
medal in board three, in the and World U16 Chess Olympiad (2007) in Singapore,
where he won the gold medal in board one with a (9.5/10 and 2700+ performance) �
but due to the fact that he had faced less that three grandmasters, he failed to
get any GM norm.