Chess: PH bet So climbs to World No. 24

MANILA, Philippines — After ending 2013 with a bang, Filipino super Grandmaster Wesley So will try to start 2014 on a bright note when he competes in the tough Tata Steel Masters chess tournament from Jan. 10 to 26 in Amsterdam.

The 20-year-old So swept his six games to power Webster University to the PanAm Inter-Collegiate Championship and boost his world rankings to a career-high 24th place.

So, the reigning World Universiade titlist, now totes a live Fide Elo rating of 2728.7, putting him a notch over Chinese standout Wang Yue (2728.5).

Winning the Tata event, however, should be real tough for So, a finance business sophomore.

There, So will be pitted against the likes of world No. 2 GM Levon Aronian of Armenia (Elo 2803) and No. 3 American GM Hikaru Nakamura (2786).

Also entered are No. 6 GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy (2782) and Israeli GM Boris Gelfand, ranked No. 8 (2777). Roy Luarca