Queens Instructor
Mark Callano Paragua (born March 29, 1984) is a Filipino chess grandmaster. He was born to Flordeliza Callano and Ricardo Paragua, the latter of whom is also his coach. The father and son travel around the world to participate in international tournaments.
At the 1998 Disney World Rapid Chess Championship for Kids, held November 15–17 at the EuroDisney theme park in Paris, Paragua and Bu Xiangzhi each finished first with 7½ points in the boys' 14 and under section, with Paragua taking the gold medal on tiebreak points.
He was the youngest Filipino master ever, at nine years of age. He also became the youngest Filipino GM ever at 20 (until Wesley So surpassed it), beating out Eugenio Torre's record by about two years.
Paragua qualified for the 2004 World Championship in Tripoli, Libya, where he was eliminated by Viktor Bologan of Moldova in the first round 1-3. He also qualified for World Cup Chess 2005 (qualifying tournament for world championship). He upset Armenian GM Sergei Movsesian in the first round before narrowly losing in the tie breaker against Alexey Dreev of Russia in the second round (Paragua drew both his games against Dreev in the regulation)
He played for the Philippines in the Chess Olympiads of 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2012.
In his most recent tournament, the 42nd Annual World Open held at Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Arlington, Virginia, he tied for 8th-13th places eventually placing 12th after tiebreaks scoring 6 points on 5 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in a tie with among others Gata Kamsky of the United States, Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba and Victor Laznicka of Czech Republic.