INQUIRER Sports

GRANDMASTER Mark Callano Paragua turned back National Master Haridas Pascua in the 7th and final round to bag the top prize of P10,000 in the inaugural Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr. Cup Open Rapid Chess Championship at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, Pangasinan, over the weekend.

Paragua, the 2003 Southeast Asian Games most bemedalled athlete, prevailed with the white pieces after 40 moves of Reti Opening to finish undefeated in the two-day tournament with 6.5 points on six wins and a draw.

After winning the first three rounds against local players, Paragua, the first Filipino to reach super grandmaster status, subdued NM Allan Macalla in the fourth, drew with fellow GM Rogelio “Joey”Antonio Jr., in the fifth, then toppled Dick Gicain in the sixth before beating NM Pascua in the seventh.

Paragua is also aiming to break the Guinness simultaneous game world record on Dec. 26 to 27, 2009 at the historic Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

Dubbed as “1 vs. 600: Beat the MARK” the young grandmaster will face 600 players at the same time as well as 400 reserves for a total of 1,000 opponents.

Meanwhile, GMs Darwin Laylo and Ronald Dableo settled for second and third with 6.0 points each followed by fourth placer GM Antonio with 5.5 points. Also with 5.5 points were National Masters Ronald Llavanes and Dennis Gutierrez.

Romy Fagon (7.0 points) captured the 16-year-old and below title while Heirry Manoloto (6.5 points) won the 12-yeard-old and below crow.