John Paul Gomez


John Paul Gomez is a Filipino chess player. He was awarded the title of International Master in 2007 and International Grandmaster in 2009. He is a three-time Filipino national junior champion and has also won the Filipino Chess Championship.

Early life and education

Gomez is from Biñan, Laguna Province in the Philippines. He began playing chess when he was three years old and began beating older players when he was five. After becoming bored with chess, he started playing tennis, even becoming a top player in the ten-and-under age category; a fractured hand suffered while playing tennis, however, led him to switch back to chess.
Gomez graduated from De La Salle University with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Chess

While attending De La Salle, Gomez led the school's chess team to the UAAP men's chess championship for 20042005 season. Gomez won five "Most Valuable Player" awards and was named the UAAP's "Athlete of the Year" for Season 71.
Gomez has won the Flipino National Junior Championship three times. In October 2006, he finished the 45th World Junior Chess Championship with a score of 6.5 out of 13, which was good enough to earn him an IM norm.
In July 2008, he won the Filipino Chess Championship; this not only qualified him for the Filipino team competing in 38th Chess Olympiad later that year in November, but also earned him his first GM norm. At the olympiad, Gomez's draw with Czech GM Viktor Láznička in the 9th round was enough to earn his final GM norm and the GM title, making him just the tenth Filipino to do so. Gomez finished the olympiad as the top scorer for the Filipino team. Gomez also was a member of the Filipino team for the 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd and 43rd Chess Olympiads.
Gomez represented the Philippines at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games and won a silver medal for blindfold chess. Gomez actually finished tied for first with Lê Quang Liêm of Vietnam at seven points apiece, but Liêm was awarded the gold medal on tie-break points.
Gomez won a gold medal representing Albay Province at the 2018 Philippine National Games.