Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So became $295,000 richer after topping the London Classic on Monday to annex the Grand Chess Tour.

So, who now represents the United States, was already the tournament leader in the year-end "super GM competition" heading to the final round. All he needed to do was to force a tie against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to finish the tournament with six points.

The tournament also marked a milestone in So's career after he reached the 2800 ELO rating by beating Mickey Adams in Round 2.

The London Chess Classic was the last competition he had to win to clinch the top place in the Grand Chess Tour.

So, who grew up in Cavite, first won the Sinquefield Cup and then finished second in the Your Next Move Leuven rapid and blitz tournament before taking all comers in the London Chess Classic.

"I give total respect to my opponents because they are the greatest chess players in the world and this win was not easy. I had to focus like crazy to be able to sit across from [Anish] Giri,Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, MVL, Levon Aronian, Mickey Adams, Hikaru Nakamura," he said in a Facebook post.

"I may have seemed calm but my heart was pounding pretty hard most of the time. Thank you Lord Jesus for seeing me through! I respect everyone's right to believe what they want but still let me wish you all a VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS!"

So used to represent the Philippines in international tournaments until he decided to switch federations in 2014 for further exposure against stronger opponents.

A former chess prodigy, he became the youngest player to pass 2600 ELO rating in October 2008.

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