Let us hope that the family crisis facing Wesley So, the world's youngest chess grandmaster, is finally over. The 21-year-old Filipino star, eighth-ranked GM on the FIDE list, has had to weather a family storm that threatens to retard his journey to the top. To meet such an attack, hopefully to neutralise it, the troubled youngster has written an emotional letter to his estranged mother that exposes the real problem, hopefully to find closure and a life conducive to world-class chess play.
The letter does not mince words. It follows the confrontation between So and his mother, Leny, who flew from her home in Canada to the US at the start of the US National Championships in which So was a featured entrant. The young GM had recently won the US$100,000 first prize at the inaugural Millionaire Chess Open in Las Vegas. He had reportedly left Webster University to pursue a full-time chess career. Instead of supporting his move, however, So's mother launched a harsh and open attack on his departure from Webster, demanding that he return to his formal education or face losing complete contact with his family including his sisters.
Lois Key, So's stepmother with whom he lives in Minnesota, sought to protect him from what she described as "an ambush" on the eve of the tournament, an incident that created "stress and distraction that could throw him off his game."
Inevitably this family turmoil took its toll on So's concentration. His play was clearly below par; he won four games, drew one and incredibly lost three, one against a 14-year-old GM with the white pieces. Eventually, in round nine, he was forfeited for insistently writing notes to himself on his scoresheet. So's performance and eventual disqualification not only rocked the national championship tournament, it also made international chess news.
To set the record straight, largely to refute the irate gambit of his estranged mother, the young Filipino GM has written an open letter that hopefully would bring down the curtain on this distressing affair. To begin with, he categorically denies his mother's charges of being under the influence of his stepmother. He declares: "I am not cut off, isolated, drugged, in bondage or kidnapped. I do not belong to anyone but God. I am a man who wishes to be let alone, to find his own life."
"Leny So, I was not happy that you suddenly showed up in my life unannounced at the biggest tournament of the year, and that you came with Susan Leonard (his aunt) whom I hardly know. In the last six years I have only seen you once a year for about a week. I hardly know you either and you certainly don't know me to even suggest that I am anyone's personal zombie.
"All your statements to Chessdom are sad, ridiculous and completely untrue. You exposed my emails? Should I send out a few of the many you've sent me over the years where you call me putang ina mo and threaten me with being cut off from the So family forever if I do not do what you want?
"I am uncomfortable around you. You want me to respect you but you have never respected me. You left me when I was seven, telling me to become a man and find my life. Well, I have found it. You just don't like it.
"For your information it was not the Key family who wanted to go to the media. It was me who pushed them to speak out for me because I was going crazy with anger after you revealed to us your involvement with Paul Truong. I had you banned from the chess club because you were lying to me from the moment you said hello. The stress of finding out your betrayal ruined my tournament.
"Screaming curses at me in the street, grabbing my arms and trying to drag me along with you, humiliating me in public. Your way of showing love?
"And you think it strange that I ask people I trust to be with me all the time. I ask the Key family to accompany me to tournaments to help me. This does not isolate me, it protects me. Stop blaming our terrible family relationship on the innocent family that has provided me with help and support. They took me in when I needed someone and have worked hard to guide and nurture me. They take nothing at all from me and you know that.
"They are always there for me, helping me at great inconvenience to their own lives and, instead of thanking them you have maligned and smeared them to make yourself look like a loving concerned mother. Lois was always advising me to try and repair my relationship with you and I could never explain why I just can't. At least now she can see why for herself."