Paragua drops to joint sixth in Nice

Filipino International Master Mark Paragua failed to sustain the momentum of his stirring fifth-round win over Fabricio Patuzzo of Switzerland, settling for another draw with Bulgarian Grandmaster Milko Povchev to move down to joint sixth after six rounds of the X Championnat de Nice International Chess Championships at the Grand Aston Hotel in Nice, France.

"Mahirap pilitin baka matalo pa. Pero kailangan ko nang umiskor sa susunod dahil three rounds na lang ang laban," said Paragua after halving the point with Povchev.

With a third draw in the last four rounds, Paragua moved further down to a share of sixth to 14th places with Povchev, GM Petar Genov, IM Liubraka Georgiev of Bulgaria, IM Milan Mrdja of Croatia, IM Marc Leski, Sebastian Gachet, Herve Ribreau and Stephane Zawadski of France with 4.5 points apiece.

But Paragua stayed only half-point off the pace after fifth round co-leaders GM Igor Miladinovic of Greece and GM Davor Komljenovic of Croatia also settled for a draw in the top-board match.

GM Nenad Sulava of Croatia, GM Bela Badea of Romania and GM Vladimir Georgiev of Macedonia drew level with Miladinovic and Komljenovic as they won their respective sixth-round matches.

Reigning Asian 3.a Zonal champion IM Ronald Dableo trounced Italian Gabriele Di Lazaro as he wheeled back into contention with four points.

Dableo drew level with fellow Filipino Joseph Sanchez at 15th place as the latter lost his match to GM Sulava.

In the seventh round, Paragua plays the white pieces against Sebastian Gachet of France on board 5 while Sanchez and Dableo play the black pieces against Andrea Murgia and Julien Boursier of France, respectively.