So earns P15 million

Super Grandmaster Wesley So formally completed a double victory in the London Chess Classic and 2016 Grand Chess Tour Sunday and emerged $295,000 (about P14.7 million) richer.

The Philippine-born So, now representing the United States, drew with French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the ninth and final round to tally 6.0 points and seal his coast-to-coast triumph in the event held in Kensington, London.

More important, it embellished So’s domination of the four-stop, nation-hopping tour involving the world’s top players.

Counting his fourth-place finish in Paris, second in Leuven (Belgium) and first in the Sinquefield Cup held in St. Louis, Missouri, So amassed a total of 36 points, way ahead of fellow US team stalwarts Hikaru Nakamura (24.5) and Fabiano Caruana (23.75).

So actually had the London and overall titles in the bag when he forged a draw with Caruana in the eighth round of the round-robin event featuring 10 players boasting an average Elo rating of 2785.

With three wins and six draws, So amassed a performance rating of 2909, towing second placer Caruana with 5.5 and 2861, No. 3 Vladimir Kramnik 5.0 and 2826, No. 4 Viswanathan Anand 5.0 and 2829 and No. 5 Nakamura 5.0 and 2829.

It was a meteoric rise for the 23-year-old So, who wound up 12th and last in the 2015 edition won by Norweigian world champion Magnus Carlsen.

As a result, So’s live Elo rating jumped to 2807.8, fourth highest in the world and 11th highest in history.

So played for the Philippines in four Chess Olympiads—2006 Turin (Italy), 2008 Dresden (Germany), 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia) and 2012 Istanbul (Turkey)—before switching to the US Chess Federation and acting as its non-playing captain in the 2014 Tromso Olympiad.

With So winning the board 3 gold medal, the US went on to rule the 2016 Baku (Azerbaijan) Olympiad. —ROY LUARCA