Reason to celebrate

Tata's steel turned out to be hard enough for GM Wesley So, the Filipino chess superhero, to crack.

But Wesley's heroic bite proved to be strong enough to still emerge from the 2011 Tata Steel Chess Tournament a winner.

He didn't top the tournament, yes, but he didn't lose it either. In fact, his showing was full of appetite, in business sense.

Wesley did his dealings there superbly well, leaving the tournament with high return on investment in his sleeves.

Let me assess Wesley's performance based on what actually transpired rather than on what could have been. In short, I would talk on what was, and not on what if.

First, Wesley gained 7.4 Elo points, the first and measurable indication that he did well.

Second, he displayed a +4-2=7 performance, with wins outnumbering the losses.

Third, of the four wins, two were against 2700-rated opponents, particularly against World No.34 GM Navara and World No.35 GM Fressinet.

Fourth, his performance rating was 2711, higher than his 2673 rating.

Fifth, he got more global media attention than all the other participants in Group B. He's the only participant whose games were annotated live over Chessdom.com thrice. Talk about his crowd-drawing power. As I've been saying here, Wesley is the magic that sells a chess tournament, be it international in scope.

For you to be a real shining star, you just don't have to be good. You must sell. You must have in you a USP (unique selling prosition, an advertising term).

On top of it all, the beauty is that whenever Wesley plays in the global arena, the Filipino identity is being celebrated. There's a big difference between a life lived and a life celebrated. Wesley inspires us to celebrate.

After the Tata tournament, the global Filipino chess community has all the reasons to celebrate.

Wesley continues to give us the reason.

GM Wesley So's complete games in 2011 Tata Steel Chess tournament:
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