Eugene Torre
Eugenio "Eugene" Torre (born November 4, 1951) is a Filipino chess grandmaster. In 1974, at 22 years old, he became the first Filipino and non-Soviet Asian to qualify for the title Grandmaster. Torre did this by winning the silver medal in the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France. He is considered the strongest chess player the Philippines produced during the 1980s and 1990s, and played for the Philippines on board 1 in seventeen Chess Olympiads. In 2021, Torre was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.
| Eugene Torre | |
|---|---|
Torre in 1984 | |
| Full name | Eugenio Torre |
| Country | Philippines |
| Born | November 4, 1951 Iloilo, Philippines |
| Title | Grandmaster (1974) |
| FIDE rating | 2425 (April 2024) |
| Peak rating | 2580 (January 1983) |
| Peak ranking | No. 20 (January 1983) |
In a tournament in Manila in 1976, Torre was then the only one to beat the then-reigning World 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 Zoltán Ribli. He served as Bobby Fischer's second in the 1992 match against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia.
He currently plays for the Rizal Towers of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines.