WEEP for Philippine sports.
Wesley So, the Filipino chess genius, does not fight for his country, anymore.
He used to keep the Philippine flag flying by his side when playing chess overseas.
Then he moved to the United States, bringing with him his God-given gift.
But in his bag was also a wounded heart, triggering a switch of allegiance: He discarded the red-white-blue for the star-spangled-banner.
It had helped that he earned a chess scholarship in an American university, easing his entry into a land that is eternally enamored with anyone that has a Bobby Fischer affinity.
For some reason, So left his Canada-based family and shacked up with Renato “Bambi” Kabigting and Lotis Key in Minnesota after bolting his school in Missouri.
Such is the eccentric streak of chess prodigies.
So proudly considers Kabigting and Key as his adoptive parents.
Kabigting is a former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player with Padim Israel and Joy Carpio as among his peers. (Padim and Joy are my buddies.) Key is a former movie actress in the Philippines.
The couple took So like their own son, nourished both his guts and gift. It bore fruition eight years later when, on February 26 this year, the kid was granted US citizenship.
“I still love the Philippines,” said So, who was Filipino but was representing America in all his tournaments since defecting in 2013.
He told the US Chess Federation (USCF): “I love that anyone can strive to succeed here. You are not held back by your color, lack of connections or the amount of money you have.”
That was an oblique jab at sports officialdom.
Years back, So was heartbroken when he was not given a perceived law-mandated P1-million incentive for a Filipino winner abroad after topping the Universiade Championships.
Officials said only medalists in the SEA Games, Asiad and Olympiad are qualified. Of course, that’s baloney.
“I did not have the connections,” So told USCF. “I was from the province (Bacoor, Cavite), not a city boy.”
Eugene Torre, the first Asian Grandmaster in 1974, had predicted early on that So would be “a great chess player.”
Only 27, So is now a super grandmaster. Ranked world No. 2 at one time, the Fide (World Chess Federation) puts him now at No. 9.
“I want to give back to a country that has been so good to me,” he said of the US. “From the moment I landed here, I was encouraged and enabled to become better than I was.”
Another case of one that got away. All because of the prescient tomfoolery in Philippine sports.
THAT’S IT Reigning back-to-back MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the “Greek Freak” Milwaukee Buck, was shockingly perfect as he was 16-for-16 in powering Team LeBron past Team Durant 170-150 in the National Basketball Association All-Star last weekend. That was a record as the All-Star MVP stunningly doubled the 8-of-8 mark that Sixer Hal Greer set in 1968. Giannis’s feat included three triples—two of them bank shots. Simply amazing.