He also became the youngest Filipino GM ever at 20 (until Wesley So surpassed it), beating Eugenio Torre's record by about two years.
At the 35th Chess Olympiad, Paragua scored 5 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses with a Tournament Performance Rating (TPR) of 2503 in Board 4 to place 19th, second-best in the team.
At the 36th Chess Olympiad, Paragua scored 6 wins, 3 draws, and 4 losses with a TPR of 2556 as compared to his ELO rating then of 2534 playing Board 3.
Paragua played the top Board for Team Philippines for the first time in his career in the 37th Chess Olympiad.
At the 40th Chess Olympiad, Paragua played Board 4 scoring 6 points on the strength of 3 wins, 6 draws, and 2 losses with a TPR of 2561 as compared to his 2508 ELO rating where he finished at 18th place.
He scored 5 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses as he led the team to a 5th-place finish in Pool A of Division II with 10 match points.
[31][32] On July 10, 2019, Paragua topped the 12th New York Int 2019 that featured 24 players in 9 rounds with an average ELO Rating of 2309.
[38][39] On February 27, 2020, Paragua won the Marshall GM Norm 2020, another 10-player tournament with an average ELO Rating of 2444, with a score of 6 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss.
[40] In 2004, Paragua won the 4th Alushta Autumn as he scored a total of 11.0 points in 13 rounds on the strength of 10 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss.
[41] Paragua finished second in the Asian Zone 3.3 (2011) Chess Championships and clinched the last berth in the year's World Cup.
[42][43] Paragua won the 2012 Mayor Allen Singson Cup (Candon City Chess Championships) in March 2012.
Paragua finished with 70 points in 30 games for a winning percentage of 73 percent and performance rating of 2774, coming in first place.