So starts year as FIDE World No. 10

MANILA, Philippines - If not for his decision to change federations, Wesley So would have easily been the uncontested best Filipino athlete of the year.

So, who decided to play for the United States with hopes of bolstering his chances to become world champion, capped his gigantic year by topping the North American Open yesterday in Las Vegas, Nevada where he went undefeated and pocketed the top purse worth $10,000.

The 20-year-old So overpowered a listless Mongolian Grandmaster Tsegmed Batchuluun in 46 moves of a Queen’s Pawn Opening to end up with eight points out of a possible nine after winning seven games and drawing two.

More, the top-seeded So wound up 1.5 points ahead of the field headed by second pick Bu Xiangzhi of China, Julio Becerra and Alex Yermolinsky of the US with 6.5 points apiece.

Bu drew with Russian GM Sergey Erenburg while Becerra and Yermolinsky, a former member of the US Olympiad team, split the point.

So thus emerged with his fourth title of the year after his breakthrough triumph in last May’s Capablanca Memorial in Cuba, the ACP Golden Classic in Bergamo, Italy in July and last October’s Millionaire Chess Cup also in Las Vegas where he pocketed $100,000, his biggest purse to date.

It was a dominating performance by So, who started this five-day, nine-round meet with six wins in a row and won it the day before after two straight draws with Bu and Becerra in the seventh and eighth round, respectively.

So wasn’t in a drawing mode in the final round though as he pushed the overmatched Batchuluun on the defensive right from the start before the former went for the kill by threatening mate in one to seal it.

So thus will start 2015 at No. 10 in the FIDE rating list with a career-best 2770.7 Elo rating after starting 2014 at No. 28.

Easily, So’s effort was the best by any Filipino, even eclipsing commendable performances by BMX rider Daniel Caluag, who snared a gold medal in the Incheon Asian Games, and archer Gabby Moreno, who took a gold in the World Youth Games in Nanjing, China.

If he hadn’t switched federations, So would have become an uncontested athlete of the year and the first cheeser to ever do so.

So isn’t stopping there as he is scheduled to face off with world No. 9 and US No. 1 Hiraku Nakamura in an interesting showdown this week and see action in the super strong Tata Chess Steel on Jan. 9 in The Netherlands where he will tackle the strongest chessers in the world including men’s and women’s champions Magnus Carlsen and Hou Yifang.