Filipino chess grandmasters

The Philippines now has eight chess grandmasters, after Jayson Gonzales obtained the needed norms to join the prestigious list. He is actually the ninth grandmaster the country producced, after Eugene Torre (1974), the late Rosendo Balinas (1976), Rogelio Antonio Jr. (1998), Bong Villamayor (2000), Nelson Mariano (2004), Mark Paragua (2005), Darwin Laylo (2007) and Wesley So (2007).

So is the youngest chess grandmaster while Paragua became a super grandmaster in 2006, when he achieved an ELO rating of more than 2600 and joined the world’s Top 100 players.

Paragua was the 1998 World Rapid Under-14 champion.