So moves to 40th spot in world ranking

FILIPINO chess prodigy GM Wesley So is now ranked No. 40 among the world’s best woodpushers with a rating of 2705 points in the FIDE rankings for the month of May.

His rating, published by the World Chess Federation has also pushed the 19-year-old So to the No. 2 spot among the world’s junior players.

So, a freshman at the Webster University in the United States actually tied at 39th to 41st places along with Armenian Vladimir Akopian and Ukrainian Anton Korobov who also tallied 2705 Elo rating points.

However, Akopian took the 39th spot ranking with nine games listed, a game ahead of No. 40 So and two games ahead over world No. 41 Korobov.

So ranked No. 50 in the March 2013 edition of the list when he breached the 2700 mark with a rating of 2701.

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen continues to lord over the men’s standings with 2868 Elo points while Hungrary’s Judith Polgar remains the world’s top woman player with a rating of 2696.

Top Junior is the Netherland’s Anish Giri (ELO 2734) while Top Girls is Chinese Hou Yifan (ELO 2617).  /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino