Unbelievable>

In the same time, Anish Giri has played only slightly more rated games if I count correctly and moved from 2550ish to 2720ish, while being younger.

yeah, that was a good result for topalov. compared to the rest of his lackluster performance in the olympiad, i mean.

if we for a moment disregard the game wesley and topalov played and consider the games topalov played against other grand masters in that olympiad, his performance was:

2,5/6 against an average of 2645 (he didn't beat a single 2600+ player, btw)

what kind of performance (against gms) is that? it's a tpr of 2588. so <wesley so managed to draw a player who performed at 2588> against the (other) gms he played. wow.

including the so-topalov game topalov's tpr (against gms) was 2598 in that olympiad. again, drawing wesley <improved> topalov's performance, which kind of says it all from topalov's point of view...

guys, the players topping the rating list have <beaten all the other top players>, typically more than once. they routinely draw the other top players. some of them are so good that they're willing to enter objectively worse positions against their peers in order to increase the chance of getting winning chances. doing that they still perform around 2800 <on average>.

listen, the rating list isn't a result of single, selected results - it represents the accumulated results of all events, and those players at the top are better and <more consistent> than the rest. not because they've been gifted this or that, but because they are better chess players, for whatever reasons.

purely ratingwise wesley so has done slightly better when playing <in asia> (and in particular in his own country) than when playing elsewhere in the world. i've already shown you the math. he's currently where he belongs in the rating system - where his results have put him.

whether or not he'll be able to do what he needs to improve - assuming he's got the ability to - is entirely none of fide's or anybody else's business. it's not their problem either - and from a neutral point of view it's not even a problem if he doesn't. but continuing to portray wesley so as a victim of some geographical or system-induced "conspiration" only takes focus away from the issue you seemingly care for: wesley so to enjoy more success as a chess player. the answer is pretty simple: he needs to become a better player in order to become a more successful player. that's what it boils down to.

nakamura eventually got that right. unfortunately a number of his cg.com fans never did, thinking (or pretending) that he would've been equally successful 3-4 years ago if "he'd just been given a chance". it's depressing, really.

Ok, so Wesley is the greatest, that's my word and your word too. But words don't mean much, tourney results DO SPEAK for themselves.

FIDE site has all his tourney records. Feel free to check them out, records don't lie, they will tell you a story you would try hard to find excuses, but the records do explain why the "real deal" is still where he is right now. Aside from some great games, there were spotty tourneys, remember Aeroflot 2011? Le top the list, where was Wesley on the list?

It has been 2 years since he become the "real deal" during those 2 years, great young players from the unofficial race to 27xx http://www.gmwesleyso.com/news/blog... ALL made it to 27xx except the "real deal"