Eugenio Torre

Coordinates	40°37′29″N73°57′8″N
Playername	Eugenio Torre
Caption	Torre at Bochum in 1981
Birthname	Eugenio Torre
Country	Philippines
Birth date	November 04, 1951
Birth place	Philippines
Title	Grandmaster
Rating	2495 (January 2011)
Peakrating	2580 (1983)

Eugenio Torre (born November 4, 1951) is a chess Grandmaster (GM). He is considered the strongest chess player the Philippines has ever produced during the 1980s and 1990s period, following the heels of Fischer-era Filipino chess champions National Master (NM) Ramon Lontoc, International Master (IM) Renato Naranja, IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso and GM Rosendo Balinas, Jr. Super GM Wesley So is currently the top Philippine chess player.

Chess career

1976-1983

GM Torre shot to prominence in 1976 as a possible future title challenger after winning a strong four-man tournament in Manila ahead of world champion Anatoly Karpov – thus becoming the first player to finish ahead of Karpov in a tournament since the latter became world champion. The high-point of his career came in the early 1980s when he was ranked world No.17; successfully going on to qualify to be a candidate for the world championship after tying for first with Lajos Portisch during the 1982 Toluca Interzonal.

Torre has the distinction of being the first Asian player to earn the title of International Grandmaster. He qualified for the Candidates Matches for the 1984 World Championship. In that preliminary stage, the contenders play matches against each other to determine who will challenge the world champion. Torre was eliminated when he lost his match against Zoltán Ribli by a score of 6-4.

After losing his quarter-final candidates match to Zoltan Ribli in 1983, Torre became disillusioned with chess and more or less went into semi-retirement. He went on to become a minor celebrity due to his daily one hour TV programme “Chess Today”

Olympiads and Team Championships

From 1970 to 2006, the former business administration undergraduate from Mapúa Institute of Technology donned the national colors 19 consecutive times in the World Chess Olympiad, breaking the old record of 18 consecutive held by Heikki Westerinen although still a shy of the record 20 non-consecutive appearances made by Hungary's Lajos Portisch. He had manned the top board for Team Philippines for a record 17 times already except in the 1970 and 2006 editions. He also has taken part in 6 Asian Chess Team Championships (1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1993) and once in the World Student Chess Team Championships (1969). During that 36-year stretch, Torre assumed Board 1 chores 17 times -- also a world record -- and yielded it only twice, during the 1970 edition in Siegen, Germany, and last year in Turin, Italy.

In 1988, Torre captained the Philippine team to its best-ever seventh-place finish in the Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece.

In 2010, He made his 20th Olympiad Appearance equaling the same appearance with Lajos Portisch. In the 16th Asian Games, Torre helped the Philippines finished with the 2nd place behind China beating the Indian Team.

Later career

In 2006, Torre participated in the 2nd San Marino International Chess Open where he tied for 4th-11th places with 6.5 points in 9 rounds where he eventually placed 7th after the tie-breaks becoming the highest-placed Filipino in the said tournament. He had a performance rating of 2612 at the said tournament and won euro 1,000 for his 7th-place finish.

Relations with Fischer

Torre was a friend of Bobby Fischer. He worked on Fischer's team in his 1992 rematch with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia. Much later, Torre conducted interviews on Filipino radio with Bobby Fischer. Those interviews gained notoriety for Fischer and despair for his fans. Torre was involved in 1996 when Fischer Random was launched. One anecdote during this period has it that when Torre and Fischer boarded a taxi in Buenos Aires, the driver immediately recognized Torre as a chess player. As both were about to leave the taxi, the driver, not knowing who the other distinguished passenger was, asked Torre: “Whatever happened to that crazy guy Fischer?”

Notable games

In a tournament in Manila in the 1976, Torre beat then reigning world chess champion Anatoly Karpov in a game that has become part of Filipino chess history.

Karpov versus Torre, Sicilian Defense 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.O-O-O Bd7 9.f4 b5 10.Qe1 Nxd4 11.Rxd4 Qb6 12.Rd2 Be7 13.Bd3 b4 14.Nd1 Bb5 15.Nf2 h6 16.Bh4 g5 17.fxg5 hxg5 18.Bg3 Nh5 19.Ng4 Nxg3 20.hxg3 Rxh1 21.Qxh1 Rc8 22.Kb1 Bxd3 23.cxd3 Qd4 24.Qd1 a5 25.Nh2 g4 26.Nxg4 Bg5 27.Rc2 Rxc2 28.Kxc2 a4 29.a3 b3 30.Kb1 d5 31.exd5 Qxd5 32.Nf2 Qxg2 33.Ne4 Be3 34.Nc3 Qc6 35.d4 Qc4 36.d5 e5 37.Qh1 Qd3+ 38.Ka1 Bd4 39.Qh8+ Kd7 40.Qa8 Qf1+ 41.Nb1 Qc4 42.Qb7+ Kd6 43.Qb8+ Kxd5 44.Qd8+ Ke6 45.Qe8+ Kf5 46.Qd7+ Kg6 47.Qg4+ Kf6 48.Nc3 Qf1+ 0-1

Awards/Achievements

★ Asia's first Grandmaster at the age of 22

★ 2010 20th Appearance at Chess Olympiad equaling with Lajos Portisch

★ 2010 3rd Calgary International Chess Classic, 2nd Place (6.0/9, tied with IMs Renier Castellanos and Edward Porper)

★ 2008 3rd President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) Cup, Champion (7.0/9)

★ 2006 2nd San Marino International Chess Open, 7th place

★ 2005 5th Bangkok Chess Club Open, 2nd Place (7.5/9 lost in tiebreak to GM Ian Rogers)

★ 2005 Southeast Asian Games, Bronze Medal (Men's Individual Rapid Chess)

★ 2005 Southeast Asian Games, Silver Medal (Men's Standard Team Event)

★ 2002 Philippine National Championships, Champion

★ 1993 Asian Chess Team Championships, 3rd place in Board 1 (6.5 points/9)

★ 1986 Dubai, UAE Chess Olympiad, Bronze Medalist in Board 1 garnering 9.5 points/13 (7 wins, 5 draws, 1 loss)

★ 1983 Asian Chess Team Championships, 1st place in Board 1 (8.5 points/9)

★ 1980 La Valletta, Malta Chess Olympiad, Bronze Medalist in Board 1 scoring 11 points/14 (9 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss)

★ 1977 Asian Chess Team Championships, 1st place (6.0 points/7)

★ 1976 The Marlboro-Loyola Kings Challenge, Champion (becoming the first player to finish ahead of Anatoly Karpov since becoming world champion)

★ 1974 Nice, France Chess Olympiad, Silver Medalist in Board 1 (behind Anatoly Karpov) going undefeated in 19 matches with 9 wins and 10 draws for 14 points/19

★ 1970 Philippine Junior and Adult Champion

★ Once ranked as high as No. 17 in the world in the 1980s

★ Has appeared in the Chess Olympics for 20 consecutive times equaling Lajos Portisch of Hungary who also played in 20 Olympiads.

★ played Board 2 for Team Philippines in the 1970 Chess Olympiad at Siegen, Germany behind International Master Renato Naranja

★ in the 1972 Skopje Olympiad, he assumed the top board (Board 1) for Team Philippines, a position he held until the 2004 Olympiad held at Mallorca, Spain (a total of 17 Olympiads, a world record)

★ played Top Board in the following Olympiads: Skopje 1972, Nice 1974 (where he got his GM title and led the Philippines to a then unprecedented 11th place finish), Haifa 1976, Buenos Aires, 1978, Malta 1980, Lucerne 1982, Thessaloniki 1984, Dubai 1986, Thessaloniki 1988 (where the Philippines recorded its best finish at 7th place), Novi Sad 1990, Manila 1992, Moscow 1994, Yerevan 1996, Elista 1998, Istanbul 2000, Bled 2002 and Calvia de Mallorca 2004

★ at the 2006 Olympiad at Turin, Italy, gave way to Super GM Mark Paragua on top board as he played Board 2 for only the second time in his entire Olympics career

★ after 19 consecutive Chess Olympiads, Torre has recorded 86 wins, 111 draws and 39 losses in 236 games for a total score of 141.5 points, fourth over-all in Olympiad history behind Lajos Portisch (176.5/260 games), Miguel Najdorf (145/222 games) and Svetozar Gligoric (142.5/223 games)

Notes

References

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External links

Calgary Chess Club Executives

Calgary International Player List

Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:Chess Olympiad competitors Category:Chess grandmasters Category:Filipino chess players