A knight move on the 25th, which coach GM Eugene Torre described as "genius," enabled the white-playing Paragua to go a pawn up. Then the Filipino chess whiz cleverly brought the match into an endgame where he forced his 22nd-ranked rival to resign on the 42nd of their Caro Khan game.
It was indeed a rousing, if inspiring, victory for the 20-year-old Paragua, the best Filipino performer in the last SEA Games (with three gold medals) who will now shoot for a berth in the next round when he handles the black pieces in game two of his match with Bologan, whose 2665 rating is too superior for Paragua’s 2529.
"Genius yung Knight move (Nc4) sa 25th. Tapos malupit pa yung d5 push sa 34th," Torre told The STAR in a text message. "Very accurate ang laro ni Mac-Mac kahit na me lagnat siya at inuubo."
But it was Bologan who left the hall hurting as he needs to beat the Filipino bet to force tie-break matches.
Also playing white and matched against another super-GM, Asian Zonal champion Ronald Dableo settled for a draw with Livie-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania after 52 moves of their Reti game.
According to Torre, Dableo, playing for the first time in a tournament of such magnitude, was forced to play defensively in the middle game but recovered in time and even gained a slight initiative through his resourcefulness.
"Basta laro ko lang yung usual active game ko," said Paragua, a product of Shell active chess and the next Filipino player after Nelson Mariano II lined up for a GM title. "Bukas kasi ‘yun naman ang gamay ko."
Also winning their matches from among the 128-man field were top seed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Michael Adams of England, Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Nigel Short of England, who all stand above 2700 ratings.