Wesley now rated No. 5 in world chess rankings

Wesley So is now the world’s fifth highest rated chess player and he continues to rise.

So, who was born in the Philippines but represents the US, bested Anish Giri of the Netherlands to stay in the Norway Chess tournament title hunt while climbing up to World No. 5 in the live ratings.

The world Fischer-Random king fought Giri to a 31-move draw of a Nimzo-Indian clash to improve his rating to 2781, or the fifth best in the globe and behind only to world champions Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren of China, Alizera Firouzja of France and Fabiano Caruana of the United States.

The two-time US champion has been on a tear as of late as he had also beaten Azeri Teimour Radjabov and Carlsen himself in the first two rounds of the Stavanger tilt.

So needed an Armageddon tiebreaker where he split the point with Giri in 44 moves of a Ruy Lopez, enough to get 1.5 points that hiked his total to six points.

It was good for solo second place behind only Vishwanathan Anand of India, who bested China’s Wang Hao in their playoff game, with 7.5 points.

So is hoping to rack up some more points with hopes of reclaiming his place at World No. 2, which he reached a few years back.