Paragua settles for joint 2nd

IM Mark Paragua drew his final round match with IM Amir Bagheri and finished joint second in the 2003 Championannat de Paris chess championship Sunday night in France.

Paragua closed out with 6.5 points on 5 wins and 3 draws against a loss to share second to eighth places with IM Todor Todorov of Bulgaria, GM Stanislav Savchenko of Ukraine, GM Andrei Shcekachev of Russia, IM Thal Abergel and GM Manuel Apicella of France and Bagheri.

In the final round,IM Bagheri and IM Paragua settled for a truce in their Torre Attack game.

At 22nd to 28th place is another Filipino entry IM-elect Joseph Sanchez who scored 5.0 points. Top Luxumberg player GM Alberto David top the 69 man-field FIDE Open tournament with 7.0 points.

"Babawi na lamang po kami ni kuya Joseph sa Gallager Open sa Hulyo 16 sa Spain, sana palarin po kami na makakuha ng GM result," said the 1998 World Rapid-under 14 champ in yesterday long distance interview.

According to National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) secretary-general Atty.Sammy Estimo he was happy for the good performance of Mark and Joseph, especially Paragua increase a 6 points for his ELO rating, however Estimo admitted his sad feelings

to Asian 3.2a zonal champion GM candidate Ronald Dableo and eng‚r Ric Paragua who cannot be leaving tomorrow bound for Europe because the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) have no more funds as of now.

"Masaya ako sa magandang ipinamalas nina Mark at Joseph bagamat medyo kinapos sa GM result at sa titulo but they work hard, proud ako sa kanila kaso malungkot ako kasi baka hindi matuloy sina Ronald at Ric bukas patungong Europe, as of now kasi walang pera ang PSC at bukas pa magkakapondo mula sa kaban ng Pagcor, sana matulungan sila nina PSC chair Eric Buhain at PSC executive director Ed Mateo‚" said the two-time Olympiad player.