Ilonggo Chess Grandmaster Eugene Torre made the country proud after he became the first Asian to be inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame of the World Chess Federation.
Torre, who traces his roots from Iloilo, was the Philippines and Asia’s first Grandmaster. He was inducted along with Polish-Argentine GM Miguel Najdorf and Hungarian Judit Pulgar from the nominees that the FIDE approved during an online council meeting on April 20 (Manila time).
The Filipino pride joins China’s woman chess legend Xie Jun as the only Asians to be inducted into the World Hall of Fame that includes icons such as Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, and Bobby Fischer among other notable names.
To recall, Torre won one silver and three bronze medals in the World Chess Olympiad in which he also owns the record for most appearances with 25 including 23 as a player starting in 1973.
He caught the attention of the public in 1976 match after he beat Karpov, then the reigning World champion, in a tournament in Manila making him the first Filipino to defeat the Russian icon who ruled the sport from 1975 to 1985 as the sport’s top player.
At present, there are 37 inductees in the World Chess Hall of Fame, with the first entrants being Jose Raul Capablanca of Cuba, Bobby Fischer and Paul Morphy of the U.S., Emmanuel Lasker of Germany, and Wilhem Steinitz of Austria in 2001.
Torre, who had a peak FIDE rating of 2580 in 1983 and was once ranked as high as 17th in the world rankings, continues to display his skills in the recently-established Professional Chess Association of the Philippines, where he was drafted first overall by the Rizal Towers in December 2020.IMT
