WFM Megan Paragua is a younger grasp to be careful for. Simply 12 years previous, she put up a efficiency ranking of 2506 (grandmaster power) by spherical seven on the 2025 Grenke Chess Open A after a draw with GM Mikheil Kekelidze. Although she misplaced the final two rounds, which lowered her efficiency afterward, she remains to be eligible for the FIDE grasp title as a result of she crossed 2300 through the occasion. She gained 79 ranking factors in that one event alone.
Congrats to Megan Paragua on crossing 2300 and incomes the FM title mid-way by way of the Grenke Open! 🥳
She did it at age 12 (!!), similar to Alice Lee! 👏👏
And she or he has a great likelihood at norms too! 👀https://t.co/tmUXyJXYyS
📷: Crystal Fuller#chess #womeninchess pic.twitter.com/akCU3IpoWm
— Girls’s Chess Protection (@OnTheQueenside) April 20, 2025
In response to Chess.com’s statistics group, if she had been 2300+ on the following printed ranking record, she can be the sixth youngest feminine participant to cross that threshold, proper forward of GM Hou Yifan, the world’s number-one girl participant.
Prime Ladies To Hit 2300 Score
| Participant Title | Age |
| Judit Polgar | 10 years, 6 months, 9 days |
| Liu Pei | 11 years, 4 months, 6 days |
| Thanh Trang Hoang | 11 years, 9 months, 7 days |
| Lu Miaoyi | 12 years, 4 months, 21 days |
| Tan Zhongyi | 12 years, 5 months, 2 days |
| Alice Lee | 12 years, 5 months, 16 days |
| Hou Yifan | 12 years, 5 months, 21 days |
| Harika Dronavalli | 12 years, 6 months, 24 days |
| Kateryna Lagno | 12 years, 7 months, 4 days |
| Akshita Gorti | 12 years, 7 months, 24 days |
The event occurred alongside the 2025 Grenke Chess Freestyle Open, which GM Magnus Carlsen gained with an ideal 9/9 rating. Each occasions, which had been a nine-round Swiss with a time management of 90+30, ran on the identical schedule.
The niece of Filipino-American GM Mark Paragua (each primarily based in New York), Megan is the 2025 All Ladies U18 nationwide champion and FIDE number-one for women beneath 13. She gained gold at each the fast and blitz occasions on the FIDE World Fast & Blitz Cadet Chess Championship 2024 and first place on the 2024 New York State Okay-12 All Ladies Championship. In 2022 and 2023, she was a nationwide scholastic grade 4 and 5 co-champion and, additionally in 2023, the U12 women Pan-American champion.
Her printed FIDE ranking is 2199, however we anticipate that to spike on the subsequent printed ranking record, on Might 1.
The best-rated participant she beat was 2396-rated IM Ashot Parvanyan, in spherical 4. After they traded into an innocuous-looking endgame, Black did not fairly sense the hazard within the place. The sluggish 22…Kg7? allowed Megan to take benefit, and she or he gained a pawn after a tactical skirmish.
The second-highest rated win got here two rounds later, towards IM Michael Kopylov (rated 2333). The worldwide grasp miscalculated a tactical sequence, presumably lacking the skewer after 19…Bxa4 from afar.
Two losses within the final rounds introduced her efficiency a bit extra again to earth. With a 5/9 rating, she nonetheless beneficial properties a whopping 79 factors.
Megan is a ChessKid ambassador who has performed in occasions such because the ChessKid Youth Championships in addition to Children vs. Stars. Within the first episode of the latter, she and FM Rose Atwell (one other promising American junior), defeated the celebs WGM Nemo Zhou and WFM Anna Cramling.
In a brief interview with FM Mike Klein, Megan stated that she was absolutely conscious of her ranking progress through the occasion: “Each single spherical, I used to be checking… [earning the FM title] was my purpose, so I am actually up to date.” She talked about that having the okay issue = 40 helped (gamers beneath 18 years previous acquire and lose factors at a quicker fee, if they’re beneath 2300), however she stated she was additionally lucky to have highly-rated opponents all through the event.
She loves chess, nevertheless it’s not her solely curiosity. “I attempt to do as a lot [for chess] as I can, however I nonetheless have lots of time for my hobbies. I like to attract… i like to color, and generally i like practising guitar,” she shared.
Arising subsequent for Megan is the 2025 ChessKid Youth Championships (“Blitz is one in all my specialties,” she stated), in addition to the U.S. SuperNationals VIII. She’ll signify Columbia Grammar & Preparatory Faculty within the Okay-12 part, regardless of solely being in sixth grade, on the identical group with IMs Nico Chasin and Tani Adewumi. Previous attendees of that faculty had been GMs Hans Niemann and Marc Arnold.
On doubtlessly being the sixth youngest feminine to achieve 2300, she stated, “I can not actually course of that this occurred and I am actually impressed and proud from how far I’ve come… I actually hope that this can also encourage different women to play chess.”
I actually hope that this can also encourage different women to play chess.
—Megan Paragua
