Wesley So, former Filipino chess champion, is now a US citizen

Chess champion Wesley So is now officially an American citizen.

The US Chess Federation announced the news on their site, Thursday, sharing that the reigning US chess champion and super grandmaster formalized his citizenship on Feb. 26 at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in St. Paul, Minneapolis.

“If you work hard, you have a better chance of making it here than anywhere else in the world. I came here ready to work hard, and it turned out just as I dreamed,” said So, the world’s No. 9.

The former Filipino citizen added: “That does not mean I don’t love the Philippines. I have good memories from there. But I did not have the connections needed to succeed in that culture. I was from the province, not a city boy. Had no money etc. I wanted to go further, and there was only one country a nobody can make it.”

In 2019, So defeated Magnus Carlsen to claim the World Fischer Random Chess Championship.

So represented the Philippines in international competitions before moving to the United States in 2014. He first came to the US in 2012 as a freshman recruit for Webstar University. – Kaela Malig/RC, GMA News