| Mark Paragua | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Mark Callano Paragua |
| Country | Philippines |
| Born | March 29, 1984 Philippines |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2542 (May 2011) |
| Peak rating | 2621 (April 2006) |
Mark Callano Paragua (born March 29, 1984) is a Filipino chess Grandmaster. He was born in the Philippines to Flordeliza Callano and Ricardo Paragua, who is also his coach. The father and son travel around the world to participate in international tournaments.
At the 1998 Disney World Rapid Chess Championship for Kids, held November 15–17 at the EuroDisney theme park in Paris, Paragua and Bu Xiangzhi each finished first with 7½ points in Boys 14 and under section, with Paragua taking the gold medal on tiebreak points.
He was the youngest Filipino master ever, at 9 years of age. He also became the youngest Filipino GM ever at 20 (until GM Wesley So erased it), beating out Eugenio Torre's record by about two years.
He qualified for the 2004 World Championship in Tripoli, Libya. Paragua was eliminated by Super GM Viktor Bologan of Moldova in the first round 1-3. He also qualified for World Cup Chess 2005 (qualifying tournament for world championship). He upset Armenian Super GM Sergei Movsesian in the first round before narrowly losing in the tie breaker against an even stronger opponent in Alexey Dreev of Russia in the second round (Paragua drew both his games against Dreev in the regulation)
Paragua become the first super Grandmaster (to reach 2600 mark) in Philippine history after he placed second in the Asian Zonal 3.3 Chess Championships that ended Friday at the Stanford Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Paragua finished the 9-round Swiss system event with 7.0 points after being forced to a draw by Singapore’s GM Wu Shaobin (Elo 2510), who handled the black pieces. The Filipino earned enough Elo points from the tournament to take his 2596 Elo rating to over the 2600 norm for super GMs, according to International Arbiter Gene Poliarco. Although there is some dispute as to the definition of super GM;(for example: Eugenio Torre was considered as among the elite grandmasters back in the early and mid 80s yet his rating never breached the 2600 mark). In January 2006 FIDE listed Paragua with a rating of 2618 enough to get him in the top 100, but his rating has dropped to 2521 since his marriage.
He played for the Philippines in the Chess Olympiads of 2002, 2004 and 2006.[1]