Meet Eugene Torre, the pioneering Asian GM who beat Karpov and befriended Fischer

Viswanathan Anand became Asia’s third Grandmaster in 1988. Eugene Torre, the first from the continent to get that most important title for chess players, did it in 1974.

He was also the first Asian to play at the Candidates, the qualifying event for the World Championship. He featured in 23 Olympiads for Philippines.

He was a friend of the legendary Bobby Fischer, whom he assisted during his 1992 match against Boris Spassky. Excerpts from an interview Torre gave The Hindu:

When you were trying to become a GM, Asia was hardly a force in chess. Now, two Asians have contested the World Championship and the Women’s World Championship

.I am so happy now that China and India are there on top already. Back in my time, other than getting the Grandmaster title, I was really hoping that chess in Asia would be recognised. We were nowhere near the Soviet Union, the United States or the European countries. The players from those countries would treat us just as easy victims.

But you changed that perception. And Asia finally got a Grandmaster.

Becoming a Grandmaster was more than a dream for me. I was able to do it because my family supported me. And I think it happened with Anand, too, didn’t it? I decided, together with my family, that in order to become a Grandmaster, I had to campaign in Europe for one year, because there was no tournament in Asia. 

I didn’t get even a norm, but the European tour proved a preparation for my Interzonal championship [part of the World Championship qualifier] at Leningrad in 1973; as the Asian champion, I had qualified for it.

Torre’s achievements are even more impressive when viewed in the context of his time. ‘We were nowhere near the Soviet Union, the United States or the European countries,’ he says. ‘The players from those countries would treat us just as easy victims.’
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

At that time it was inconceivable for an Asian player to campaign in Europe for a long time. I was able to talk to a local newspaper, and we agreed that I would send reports of my tournaments and they would pay me $300 a month. During that time, life was very cheap in Madrid, I was able to get a hostel for one dollar a day.

I was homesick, though. I managed to make telephone calls home. But for just three minutes I had to pay $20. I just wanted to hear the voice of my family, you know. That would make me feel less isolated. So I returned without making a norm. But next year I got an invitation, thanks to Florencio Campomanes [who would later become FIDE president], to play at Malaga, where I made my first Grandmaster norm. I had to win my last five games for the norm, though. When I came home, there was a big celebration.

Another highlight of your career was beating Anatoly Karpov during the Marlboro-Loyola Kings Challenge, which you won, in Manila in 1976. You thus finished ahead of the World champion.

I wasn’t expecting to perform well in that tournament. I will never forget that game against Karpov. I had black pieces and I played Sicilian Defence. It was the Richter-Rauzer variation and Karpov played the Qe1 variation. And I was able to look at it before our game.

You then became the first Asian to qualify for the Candidates in 1983. That tournament featured the likes of Garry Kasparov, Vasily Smyslov and Viktor Korchnoi.

Yes, that is one of the achievements close to my heart. I qualified for the Candidates from the 1982 Interzonals held at Toluca, Mexico.  But I lost in the quarterfinals to Zoltan Ribli. Then I had again a chance to qualify for the Candidates in 1985, but missed it narrowly, by half-a-point, in fact.

At the Baku Chess Olympiad in 2016, you won bronze on the third board. Not a bad show for a 65-year-old.

My first Olympiad was in 1970 and the only one I missed after that was in 2008, when I was appointed the head coach.

You won individual medals before 2016, too. The silver on the top board in the 1974 Olympiad at Nice must have been special, for you completed your final GM norm

.I played 19 rounds and was unbeaten. I won nine games and drew 10. And there were some strong players I met, such as Viktor Korchnoi, Vlastimil Hort and Lothar Schmid.

You were one of the few chess players to get close to the most influential chess player of all time — Bobby Fischer. You even worked as his second for his unofficial world championship rematch against Boris Spassky in 1992.

I admire Fischer. He was our guest in 1968. He played with some of our top players in the Philippines. And I was just a little boy. I was watching, because he was already my idol. I did not have a chance to meet him then. The next time he was invited, in 1973, I had a small chat with him. He was making the opening moves with our president, Ferdinand Marcos. In 1976, I became closer to him. He was again a guest of Mr. Campomanes, who was then trying to promote a match between Karpov and Fischer outside of FIDE, but it did not materialise. For 20 years, Bobby did not play until 1992. He was a special champion, and he had many demands. Like a special boy, he needed special care.

Torre put Asia on the chess map. He was the first GM from the continent, as well as the first to play at the Candidates, the qualifying event for the World Championship. He featured in 23 Olympiads for Philippines, winning multiple individual medals. 
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

In the 1972 World title match against Spassky, he made some strange demands, and got the chair changed.

And then he forfeited the second game.

But he still won. What do you think are Fischer’s biggest contributions to chess?

He made chess very popular. And the 1972 match was on the front pages of all the international newspapers, and that had never happened with chess. I would even go to IBM, because I knew somebody from IBM, and you could get the moves of the game from Reykjavik right away.

How do you look back at working with Fischer for the 1992 match in Yugoslavia?

We would look at some openings, but he would not play it on that day. He would play it maybe after three weeks. You know the match took three months, over 30 games [Fischer won 10-5]. He called me early in the morning one day because the organiser was already pressing him to finish the match. He had won nine games and needed only one more. The organiser told him he was spending every day something like $20,000, for the hotel and all that.

This was Game 30 and I was surprised when he called and said, ‘Come here, come here’. His room was very dark. He had this little pocket chess set and told me he was thinking of the Samisch variation of the King’s Indian Defence. And Spassky also played it. Up to move 10. Nb3, the game went exactly according to what we planned

Your memories of playing against Anand, Asia’s first World champion.

I played him in 1986 at the Asian team championship. Somehow I played great chess and won, but I saw he was a great talent. He beat me in our next meeting, in Manila. When he became the World champion for the first time, in 2000, I was very happy. It was not just India, but Asia was happy.