Paragua stays in hunt for 2nd crown in Nice

Slowed down by draws against his compatriots, GM-candidate Mark Paragua resumed his bid for a second crown in as many weeks as he outclassed Fabricio Patuzzo of Switzerland in the fifth round Thursday of the X Nice International Open chess tournament at the Grand Aston Hotel in Nice, France.

Paragua actually scored 1.5 points in one day as he halved the point with Joseph Sanchez in the morning match before trampling his Swiss rival in the afternoon to stay within striking distance of joint leaders Igor Miladinovic of Greece and Davor Komljenovic of Croatia heading to the final two rounds of the seven-round Swiss system event.

Paragua, who nipped Sanchez and Dimitar Marholev of Bulgaria in the tiebreak to win the Cannes Open crown last week, hopes to notch another victory in the penultimate round against Miko Popchev of Friday and go for all-out win Saturday.

Sanchez, winner of the Milano Open title early in the year, likewise kept his title bid alive by demolishing lowly-rated Hagop Makaryan of France in the fifth round to join the 9-man 4-pointers group.

Miladinovic trounced Petar Genov of Bulgaria while Komljenovic downed Nikola Mitkov of MKD to share the lead with 4.5 points. They clash for the solo lead in the penultimate round.

Disaster struck the other Filipino bet in the fold as Asian 3.2a Zonal king Ronald Dableo bowed to Igor Solomunovic of BIH and dropped out of the title race with three points.