Photo by Pulsar, courtesy of chessgames.com
TAGAYTAY City, Philippines—Grandmaster Mark Paragua saved the Philippine campaign in the Asian Zonal Chess Championships on Monday, winning his final match and booking a return trip to the World Cup at the Tagaytay International Convention Center here.
Handling white superbly, the 27-year-old Paragua downed Singaporean International Master Goh Wei Ming in 35 moves of a Sicilian to place second behind Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto, who subdued Filipino GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio, in the 48-man Open division.
Megaranto, a perennial campaigner in Manila, posted seven points to claim the top purse of $1,000 and earn the right to represent the Asian Zone 3.3, along with Paragua, in the biennial World Cup slated in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, later this year.
Paragua actually wound up tied with top-seeded Singaporean GM Zhang Zhong and IM Richard Bitoon at 6.5 points, but emerged with the better tiebreak.
Zhang trounced erstwhile leader GM Darwin Laylo while Bitoon stunned Vietnamese GM Dao Thien Hai.
The average rating of Paragua’s opponents in this twin event organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and hosted by the Tagaytay City government through Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, was 2500. Zhang’s foes had an average rating of 2484 while that of fourth-placer Bitoon 2397.
Asian Youth 16-and-under champ Jan Emmanuel Garcia struck anew, drawing his final match with Vietnamese IM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy to secure fifth place and earn an outright IM title with six points.
Elated by the performance of the 15-year-old Garcia, NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay said he would like to send the incoming Ateneo de Manila high school senior to Europe for a series of tournaments.
Paragua, who qualified for the 2004 World Championship in Tripoli, Libya, and the first Filipino to breach the Elo rating of 2600, also advanced to the 2005 World Cup, where he shocked Slovakian GM Sergei Movsesian in the first round before bowing to Russian super GM Alexey Dreev in the second.
“I’m very happy and hope to do the country proud again,” Paragua, fresh off a successful one-year campaign in the United States, said in Filipino.
Joining Paragua in the 2011 World Cup is GM Wesley So, the country’s top player who qualified by landing in the top five of the 2010 Asian Continental Championships. So reached the round of 16 in the 2009 edition, where each participant was assured of at least $6,000.
Veteran IM Rolando Nolte thwarted Indonesian GM Cerdas Barus to climb to sixth place with six points, dislodging Laylo, who yielded to Megaranto in the eighth round Sunday night and got mired at 5.5 points.
Singaporean IM Li Ruofan lived up her top billing by drawing with Vietnamese WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram to rule the distaff side and advance to this year’s Women’s World Championship.
Li, the wife of Zhang, and Hoang both wound up with 6.5 points, but Li emerged with the better tiebreak to snare the winner’s prize of $500.
WIM Beverly Mendoza emerged the Philippines’ best performer with 5.5 points, landing 11th.
FINAL standings (Philippines unless stated): 7.0—S. Megaranto (Ina); 6.5—M. Paragua, Z. Zhong (Sin), R. Bitoon; 6.0—J. Garcia, R. Nolte; 5.5–D. Laylo, R. Antonio, J. Gomez, O. Barbosa, A. Nguyen (Vie), H. Nguyen (Vie),A. Datu, O. Dimaking; 5.0—W. Goh (Sin), V. Nguyen, C. Sang (Vie), E. Torre, T. Dao (Vie), D. Nguyen (Vie), R. Hamdani (Ina)