FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So has officially risen to no. 2 in the world rankings.
According to the latest list provided by the International Chess Federation, So has overtaken Fabiano Caruana in the month of March with his ELO rating of 2822.
So’s ranking moved up after he won the 2017 Tata Steel Chess Tournament last January.
Norwegian Magnus Carlsen remains as the world no. 1 player with 2838 ELO points, while Caruana is third with 2817.
In fourth is Vladimir Kramnik (2811), followed by Maxine Vachier Lagrave (2803).
Analysts noted that this will be the first time there are five players, whose ratings are above 2800.
So, who is 16 points behind Carlsen, is deep in preparation for his next series of tournaments–the 2017 Grand Chess Tour.
In this series, Kramnik won’t be around, with Levon Aronian taking his place in the tournament, which will offer a total purse of $1.2 million.
The 23-year-old So and the world’s top nine players are coming, except Kramnik.
Carlsen, Caruana, Vachier-Lagravfe, Viswanathan Anand, Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin Ian Nepomniachtchi are joining.