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Issue 33 (12
Oct. 2009) |
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Asian
Chess Giants
Philippines' Eugenio Torre has the distinction of being Asia's first International Grandmaster. Torre rose to Chess prominence in a time when no Asian player would dare dream of attaining such a great feat. Going against all odds, Torre carried the hopes of all his country men as well as all Asian chess players when he embarked on his quest of achieving the title of International Grandmaster (GM). In 1972, Torre first achieved the International Master (IM) title. He began to step up the tempo and went all out to get a shot at the GM title. Within two years, Torre found himself in a sweet situation where he only needed a draw to secure the title of GM. It was Round 12 of the 1974 Nice Chess Olympiad and Torre was playing White against GM Robert Byrne of the USA. After trading some pieces, Torre offered GM Byrne a draw on move 13! (Apparently, 13 is Torre's lucky number!) After Byrne had consulted with team captain GM Benko, Byrne came back to the board, sat himself down, pondered for few minutes and then extended his hand in congratulations to Asia's First Grandmaster!! He was only 22. Below is the famous position that many Asian chess players will remember as the turning point in Asian Chess. GM Robert Byrne Torre continued to play strongly after that and even won a remarkable game against Anatoly Karpov in 1976, the then reigning World Chess Champion! Playing Black against Karpov, Torre went all out and played the Sicilian Defence. Here is the game: Karpov-Torre,
1976 Eugenio Torre's has an insatiable appetite for the game, to say the least. He has played in 19 Chess Olympiads, beginning in 1970, won 3 silver medals at the Chess Olympiads while playing on board 1, played in the Candidates Matches in 1984 against GM Zoltan Ribli, he was once ranked 17th in the world chess rankings, won the Pan-Pacific Grandmaster Tournament in San Francisco 1991, won the 2002 National Championships, and the list seems to continue.
Yes, there were many great Filipino chess players like NM Ramon Lontoc, IM Renato Naranja, IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso and the
late GM Rosendo Balinas before Torre and there are many rising Chess
stars in his country now. However, if you compare the resources, the
number of strong rated players and the number of rated tournaments
then and now, I believe you can only conclude that Grandmaster Eugene
Torre is the strongest chess player to come out of the Philippines for
ALL time. E Torre - M Paragua,
Philippines Ch., (8) 2002 (Trompowsky Attack) - By Collin Madhavan
Last updated 18 October 2009 |
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