FILIPINO GM PARAGUA LOSS TO RUSSIAN IM FAILED TO FINISH SOLO FIRST IN THE NORTHEAST OPEN CHESS

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

COUNTRY'S No.3 Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Mark Paragua (2525) failed to finish clear first in the just concluded 13th annual Northeast Open Chess Championships after losing his fifth and final round match last Sunday in Stamford, Connecticut, USA.

The 23-years-old 2003 Vietnam Southeast Asian Games most bemedalled athlete with three gold suffered a heart-breaking loss to Russian International Master Yury Lapshun in the final round.

It was a sorry loss to Paragua from Marilao, Bulacan whose leading entire tournament and needed only a draw in his last match to finish solo first in this Continental Chess Association tournament.

Paragua finish with a 4-1 win-loss record, good him for a tie for first to seventh place in the company of IM Lapshun, FM Bryan Smith, FM Ilye Figler, and United State Masters Daniel Yeager, Max Enkin and Eigen Wang.

Paragua whose stint here is being supported by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr., New York immigration lawyer Gerry Albano, Dickies VP president Dody T. Arcaya and sportsman Jeremy Regino, defeated earlier Matthew Derek Meredith, Jeffrey Haskel, Lonnie Kwartler

and Bryant Smith, respectively.

The 1998 World Rapid Under-14 champion had an impressive performance in the past regarding his US chess campaign, which aims to back his chess status in the world's top 100. His best ELO record is 2621 in the April 2006 FIDE-RP list.

In his first US tournament this year, Paragua settled runner-up place (4/5) last June 15-17 in Bradley Open in Windsor, Connecticut then followed a tie for 2 nd to 6th place last June 21 in the 20th Thursday Night Championships in New York, New York.

However in the tough 35th annual World Open in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania last July 28 to July 4, he lost to Israeli GM Leonid Yudasin in the fifth round that force him to withdrew his participation to prevent losing his ELO rating points and focus in the side event, the game 10 minutes.

Paragua, the only Filipino back to back FIDE World Championships qualifier, finish with 2-3 win-loss card in the Open section but bounced back by winning the side event game 10 minutes with 4.5 points out-of-five games, much known the rapid chess format, one of the favorite game of the former child prodigy. (MARLON BERNARDINO).