MANILA, Philippines — Filipino Grandmasters Oliver Barbosa and Mark Paragua continued to reap honors for the country when they finished first and second in the New York State Championships 2019 in Albany, New York.
Barbosa, 32, finished first with five points on an undefeated record of four victories and two draws in six rounds while Paragua, 35, ended in a five-player tie for second with 4.5 points but wound up with the highest tiebreak score to claim the No. 2 spot.
Barbosa’s victories came against David Finnerman, Jacob Chen, Zachary Tanenbaum and International Master David Brodsky while the draws came against Russain IM Vitaly Bachin and Paragua in the final round.
The title kept Barbosa’s tradition of winning at least one title each year in the United States. Last year, he topped the 48th Continental Open in Sturbridge, Massachusetts and won the Washington International Open the year before.
Despite the accolades he is getting on foreign land, Barbosa said he still hopes to once again represent the Philippines in the World Chess Olympiad someday.
“It’s always a dream for me to play for the Philippines in the Olympiad,” said Barbosa, who is currently the country’s second highest rated chesser with a rating of 2529 behind another US-based woodpusher GM Julio Catalino Sadorra (2564).