After nine rounds in the 2008 Sydney International Open Chess Tournament, which was held on 25-29 March at Parramatta Town Hall, Australia, JJ De Ramos of Mapua Institute of Technology, seeded 27th, finished 21st. He had 5 1/2 points by beating Kalisch Tom, Stojic Svetozar, Nguyen Thu Giang, Hu Jason, Dotsenko Viacheslav and a draw with FM Goldenberg Igor.

De Ramos lost all his games with a GM. His performance rating is 2355.