Where is Canada located geographically?
I had a good laugh this afternoon reading a comment made by a Filipino-journalist about the recently announced federation change of Wesley So, from the Philippines to the US. Before I get to the chuckle, for my readers who are not up on current affairs in the chess world, Wesley So is one of the top juniors in the world, sporting a 2700-plus rating. So is something of a national hero in his native Philippines. Even though his entire family had moved to Canada several years ago, So refused to even contemplate changing federations to that of Canada, preferring to remain affiliated with his native federation.
So’s most recent tournament victory, the Capablanca Memorial, is the greatest success of a filipino-born grandmaster.
Last year the young So accepted an athletic scholarship to Webster University in the states, and was so impressed with the new opportunities that opened up to him that he requested his chess federation (National Chess Federation of the Philippines–the NCFP) to allow him to change federations, with the condition that he would represent the Philippines at the Norway 2014 Olympiad as his last official role as a filipino chess player. The president of the federation refused(!), naturally unhappy about the prospect of losing such a star player.
Fast forward to just a couple of days ago, So decided to move ahead anyway and officially informed his federation that he was changing to the US federation (USCF). Even with the NCFP’s lack of cooperation, So will be eligible to play for the US sometime in the next two years, possibly sooner if So pays a sizeable transfer fee.
Now to the chuckle…the ManilaTimes, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the Philippines, wrote an article today about So’s federation change. Noting that So was a student at Webster University, the ManilaTimes wrote:
‘He said his family “has permanently moved to Canada” which is very near Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri’
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Remember, ofcourse, that the journalist was writing this for the benefit of his filipino-readers. We Canadians often make fun of the geographical ignorance of Americans…it seems that world geography is not a well taught subject in the Philippines either!
Finally, to answer the question in the title to this blog article ”Where is Canada located geographically?” Susan Polgar should be quite flattered to realize that TODAY most filipinos believe that Canada is located several hundred miles due north of Susan Polgar!
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WHICH BEGS THE TRICK QUESTION:
