Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Paragua cops Asian Indoor chess berth


MANILA, Philippines - GM Mark Paragua and veteran campaigner Catherine Perena shared the limelight recently at the close of the Asian Indoor Games qualifying tournament held at the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) Employees’ Lounge in Diliman, Quezon City.

Paragua swept his remaining three matches against Mari Joseph Turqueza, Ali Branzuela and GM Buenaventura “Bong”Villamayor to clinch top honors with 12.5 points on 10 wins, five draws and only one loss in the tough, 17-player tournament.

He finished one and a half points ahead of top seed GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. and two points ahead of IM Rolando Nolte.

The win solidified Paragua’s claim as one of the country’s top players and enabled him to clinch one of four berths to the Philippine team seeing action in the Asian Indoor Games scheduled Sept. 30-Oct. 8 in Vietnam.

Joining Paragua will be Antonio, Nolte and GM Jayson Gonzales, who edged fellow GM Darwin Laylo for the fourth and last seat.

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