Eugene Torre: Forever the litmus test for Philippine chess
Only Torre has been able to summon his best when playing against the elite
Ignacio Dee
Published 12:08 AM, September 15, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – For 3 generations, Eugene Torre has been synonymous with chess: its golden age and the era now where it is struggling, bereft of sponsors and all those international tournaments which helped create many fans.
Any Filipino will ask how Torre is doing every time there is an international event, or even if they are competing abroad. Wesley So may no longer be playing for us but few care, except his sizeable Filipino fans, for there is still Torre.
The Chess Olympiad is over. Filipino chess fans will no longer stay up until midnight or even 1 am to wait for team results and the next day’s pairings. They will no longer fidget, as many did, when Torre struggled for almost 6 hours to defeat Mouthlun Ly of Australia to ensure his 10/11 performance on board 3.
That he had the white pieces in 8 of these games seems to be a factor, but the best player still no matter what pieces he handles.
They are in chess heaven, for when will we have a 64-year-old grandmaster scoring 10/11 and a 19-year-old honor student becoming the country’s first woman grandmaster?
They will be in a high, especially when the team is expected to arrive Thursday evening and hold a press conference Friday noon. There are two chess Facebook sites: Chess Philippines and Chess News and Views, and there will be tales and pictures from the Baku Chess Olympiad.
Torre has always been part of the Philippine chess scene since the 1968 Meralco Open, where a 17-year-old showed his wares. It will be unthinkable to visualize Philippine chess without Eugenio Oliveros Torre, who said this was to be his last Olympiad.
For only Torre has been able to summon his best when playing against the elite. Torre’s conquest of world champion Anatoly Karpov in 1976 in Manila remains fresh among Filipinos aged 60 and above. Karpov rarely lost at the time. This was big news in chess magazines, especially on how Torre fearlessly attacked the world champion.
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