Grandmaster Mark Paragua, hoping to rebound from a forgettable stint in the last World Chess Olympiad, won his opening match in the second San Marino International Chess Open Monday.
The 22-year-old, top-ranked Filipino, who scored only 4.5 points in 11 games in the Olympiad, outclassed Italian Calogero Di-Caro with the black pieces.
Four other Filipinos hurdled their assignments against Italian opponents.
GM Eugene Torre defeated Jea Lamastus-Canda, International Master Oliver Dimakiling crushed Marco Massironi, Darwin Laylo nipped Alexei Bottino and Rolando Nolte disposed of Willem Sparreboom.
Twelve-year-old Wesley So, the other Filipino in the field, drew with GM Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine.
The Filipinos took a six-hour trip to San Marino to take part in the event which offers 10,000 euros to the champion.
Paragua, ranked eighth in the 148-man field, takes on Slovak Mikulas Manik in the next round.
Other winners in the opening round were top seed GM Sergei Tiviakov (ELO 2669) of the Netherlands, No. 2 GM Alexander Areshchenko (ELO 2660) of Ukraine, No. 3 GM Zahar Efimenko (ELO 2662) of Ukraine, No. 4 GM Baadur Jobava (ELO 2646) of Georgia, No.5 Aleksander Delchev (ELO 2640) of Bulgaria, No. 6 GM Vadim Milov (ELO 2625) of Switzerland, No. 7 GM Giovanni Vescovi (ELO 2622) of Brazil, No. 9 GM Levan Pantsulaia (ELO 2609) of Georgia and No. 10 GM Jaan Ehlvest (ELO 2607) of Estonia, among others.
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