Eugenio Torre
| Eugenio Torre | |
|---|---|
Torre in 1984
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| Full name | Eugenio Torre |
| Country | Philippines |
| Born |
November 4, 1951 Philippines |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2455 (April 2017) |
| Peak rating | 2580 (Jan 1983) |
| Peak ranking | 20= (Jan 1983) |
Eugenio Torre (born November 4, 1951) is a chess grandmaster (GM). He is considered the strongest chess player the Philippines produced during the 1980s and 1990s, and has been Board 1 player for the Philippines in eighteen World Chess Olympiads. In 1974, then twenty-two years old, he became Asia's first Grandmaster by winning the silver medal in the Chess Olympiad held in Nice, France. 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. In 1982 he gained a spot in the World Chess Championship candidates matches, where he lost to Zoltan Ribli. He served as Bobby Fischer's second in the 1992 match against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia. Torre is still an active player and put in a strong performance at the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku in 2016.
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. "In the summer of 1976, three grandmasters traveled to Manila, Philippines to participate in the Marlboro-Loyola Kings Challenge chess tournament. They were (in order of Elo): World Champion Anatoly Karpov (2695) from the Soviet Union, Ljubomir Ljubojevic (2620) from Yugoslavia, and Walter Shawn Browne (2585) from the United States. They were joined by grandmaster Eugenio Torre (2505) from the Philippines for a double-round robin event. The average rating of the players qualified the tournament as a category XV event.
The result was surprising and momentous due to the inspired play of Torre. Not only did he defeat the world champion in the second round, but he went on to finish clear first ahead of Karpov, a feat no one had yet accomplished since the latter had become World Champion. His success in the tournament earned Torre a place in history. The final standings and crosstable are as follows:
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