Asian Chess Giants -Grandmaster Torre

He dared to dream!

Courtesy of Philippines Federation

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


















IM Eugene Torre


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
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

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.

Oh by the way, Torre has not finished playing Chess yet, so look out for his games and his results. Below is his win against GM Paragua in 2002.

E Torre - M Paragua, Philippines Ch., (8) 2002 (Trompowsky Attack)
1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 Ne4 3 Bf4 c5 4 f3 Qa5+ 5 c3 Nf6 6 Nd2 cxd4 7 Nb3 Qf5 8 Bxb8 Rxb8 9 Qxd4 b6 10 e4 Qf4 11 Nh3 Qc7 12 e5 Ng8 13 Ng5 e6 14 Ne4 Qc6 15 0-0-0 Be7 16 Qf2 a6 17 Nd6+ Bxd6 18 Rxd6 Qc7 19 Qg3 g6 20 Nd2 Bb7 21 Bd3 Ne7 22 Be4 Nc6 23 h4 b5 24 h5 Rg8 25 hxg6 hxg6 26 Rh7 b4 27 c4 Qa5 28 Bxc6 Bxc6 29 Rxc6 dxc6 30 Ne4 b3 31 Nd6+ Kd8 32 Qg5+ Kc7 33 Rxf7+ Kb6 34 Qe3+ c5 35 Qxb3+ Qb4 36 Qd1 Ka5 37 b3 Qc3+ 38 Kb1 Qxe5 39 Rd7 g5 40 Ne4 Rb4 41 a3 1-0

Zero Start Rule

Whatever does it mean?

Zero Start Rule Explained!

The Zero Start Rule is a new rule by the World Chess Federation which further regulates the start of tournament chess games. This rule basically forces a player to be seated at his/her table at the start of the game. This rule was first applied during the 38th Chess Olympiad at Dresden, Germany in 2008, has become mandatory for all FIDE events since July 2009. Below is an excerpt from the rules of the 38th Chess Olympiad regarding this particular matter:

7.	Start and Finish of the Sessions
7.1	Five minutes before the start of each round, the Chief Arbiter must announce the approaching start of the session by a double acoustic signal; whereupon all Players are to be seated at their designated matches.
7.2	The beginning of the playing session shall be announced by the Chief Arbiter or by a single acoustic signal. At this instant, any Player who is not seated at his/her Match shall be defaulted immediately. Where both Players are absent at the beginning of the playing session, both Players shall lose the game by default.
7.3	Once the signal for the start of the round has been given, the clock of the player with the white pieces shall be started by his opponent or an Arbiter.

Before this rule came into force, a player had one hour to show up at the chessboard before his opponent could claim a walkover. For example, during the 1967 Interzonal tournament in Sousse, Tunisia, Fischer turned up just short of an hour late for his game against Samuel Reshevsky, and avoided forfeiting his game. For the record, Fischer won the game as Reshevsky seemed quite shaken up by Fischer's late arrival!

In trying to popularise the game, FIDE has decided to see the game from the eyes of the spectator & sponsor. How would it look, if say, Nadal entered the tennis court 45 minutes late? The frustration would be evident right from his opponent, to the spectators, to the sponsors and the television viewers, who have been waiting for the match to begin. And if this were to persist over a period of time, the sponsors and their 'dollars' would move to another sport!

A little discipline from the chess players to correct this 'lateness' seems to be a small price to pay to bring in the sponsors and the money into Chess! This is a step in the right direction. Well done FIDE.