Wesley So: What's Next?

Philippines' #1 chess player Wesley So crushed the competition in the recent Annual Capablanca Memorial Tournament last week. Immdediately right after his victory, the Caviteno was shrouded with praises from thousands of fellow Filipino chess fans all over the world.

So's remarkable triumph in Havana, Cuba boosted

Philippine chess morale with a lot of young aspiring players worshipping him and making him their idol...

Which is really not that bad if we ain't talking about religion :)

Just after the monumental quick draw that So made with Hungarian GM(Grand-Master) Zoltan Almasi, it was clear who would bring home the filthy bacon:)

It is fantastically fortunate that the grueling hard work of Wesley So and his US-based coach, GM Susan Polgar has beard fruit, and that such training had not been in vain:)

Perhaps one of the key factors that lead to Wesley's triumph in Havana was his 8th round win against Cuban Grandmaster Leinier Dominguez. Their imbalanced game seemed OK for both sides(black and white), just until Dominguez first faltered.

So the million dollar question right now is...

What's next for So?

By now, So is currently rated #15 in the FIDE live ratings, which means that So might get even more elite tournament invites. While this is obviously good for the Filipino #1, this also means that the challenges will be tougher. One big challnge for So that I could easily  pinpoint is his arch-nemesis, GM Anish Giri:)

A lot of Filipino chess players from the homeland are prasing So right now and are making noise that Wesley So should be given 100% support its national government. And hopefully, So will get the support he needs which will fuel his passion even more to climb to the top of the chess elite.