Balinas was considered the strongest Asian player during the 1960s and 1970s, before the emergence of compatriot Eugenio Torre. Balinas won international chess tournaments in Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, and Odessa, USSR during the period. At the 1966 17th Chess Olympiad in Havana, Cuba, Balinas scored 15½ points out of 20 games (.775) and was awarded the individual silver medal award, behind gold medalist, former world champion Mikhail Tal, who scored 11 points out of 13 games (.846). In the 1967 Meralco "Beat Bobby Fischer" match series in Manila, of the top 10 Filipino players, Balinas was the only then Philippine national master to hold the future world champion to a draw: