Wesley So wins the first official world championship for the Fischer Random chess variant over classical world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
The Filipino-American grandmaster defeated Magnus Carlsen by a dominant score of 13.5 to 2.5 during the final played at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter art museum located close to Oslo, Norway. The event was historical since it was the first time that the International Chess Federation (FIDE) recognized a new variety of chess.
Carlsen, who hasn’t lost a game of classical chess since July 2018 and accumulates a streak of 101 games unbeaten, has been the classical world champion since 2013 and the world-number-one since 2011. He has also been considered the unofficial Fischer Random champion, having won a match in 2018 against GM Hikaru Nakamura.
Wesley was born on October 9, 1993, in Bacoor, Cavite in the Philippines. He learned chess at the age of 7 or 8 on the streets of Cavite. Estranged from his biological family, he drifted for a few years in his country until he got an offer from Webster University to move to the U.S. on a scholarship. Wesley took his studies very seriously and for some time he even considered giving up his chess career. But it was obvious that Wesley was called to achieve big things at the chessboard.
Wesley has always referred to Magnus Carlsen as his favorite player in history. Now he has been crowned as the world champion defeating no other than the one he considers the greatest: Magnus Carlsen.
