Subic chess: Paragua, Gonzales join early leaders

MANILA, Philippines –GM Mark Paragua and defending champion GM Jayson Gonzales hurdled their first round assignments to join the early leaders of the 2nd Subic Open international chess championship late Monday. Paragua, the top Filipino bet in the nine-round tournament after withdrawal of World Chess Cup-bound GM Joey Antonio and RP No. 1 GM Wesley So, started his bid with a win over compatriot Edgar Reggie Olay. Gonzalez, for his part, extracted a point with his dumping of CM Nguyen Hoang Nam of Vietnam. The tournament’s seeded players, led by newly-crowned Asian Continental champion GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India, also took care of their respective first round outings. Looking for a second straight title, newly-crowned Asian Continental champion Ganguly made short work of IM Barlo Nadera of the Philippines to gain the headstart in the 74–player meet. Similarly notching a W were second seed GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, third seed GM Parimarjan Negi of India and fourth seed GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam. Ghaem Maghami whipped FM Tsegmed Batchuluun of Mongolia, Negi crushed Deniel Causo, and Truong Son subdued WIM Kruttika Nadig of India. The only casualty for the day was No. 18 GM Buenaventura “Bong" Villamayor , who yielded to compatriot Efren Bagamasbad. Other notable first-round winners in this $30,000 tournament were GM Abhijeet Gupta of India, who bested Emmanuel Senador; GM Chanda Sandipan, who outplayed Haridas Pascua; GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia, who demolished Rhobel Legaspi; GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam, who outplayed IM Ronald Bancod; GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, who beat Jia Haoxiang of China; GM Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam, who stopped Randy Segarra; and GM Darwin Laylo of the Philippines, who overwhelmed WGM Nisha Mohota of India. In other results, it was IM Julio Catalino Sadorra over Karl Victor Ochoa; IM Oliver Dimakiling over FM terry Chua of Singapore; and Christian Arroyo over CM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam. Antonio, the lone Filipino qualifier to the World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, and So both decided to skip the tournament following the grueling, 11-round Asian Championship. Also conspicuously absent were GMs Eugene Torre and John Paul Gomez. –GMANews.TV