Since the issue as to who deserves to be called as Asia's First International Grandmaster still hot in one of the threads of NCFP Forum, let me post this piece from The Weekender of Mr. Manny Benitez:
Eugene, Glenn sparkle in Nice ’74
THE 21st Olympiad in Nice on the French Riviera in 1974 occupies a special nook in our hearts, not only because it produced the first Filipino grandmaster—and the first in Asia, at that—but also, for the first and only time ever, our national team defeated a former Olympiad champion, Hungary, 2.5-1.5.
Yes, it was in Nice in June 1974 that Eugene Torre, then aged 20, won his final norm for the GM title and a silver medal to boot on board one.
But the most significant individual board victory was scored by NM Glenn Bordonada, who did a yeoman’s task by beating a Hungarian stalwart, the world-famous GM Gyula Sax—and with Black at that!
Unfortunately, however, Bordonada did not win an individual prize despite his titanic feat. It was four years and two Olympiads later that Glenn won the gold on board four with a phenomenal 77.8 per cent performance rating based on 7.0 points from nine games.
It was also at the 23rd Olympiad held in Buenos Aires 1978 that the Philippines achieved its highest-ever ranking, finishing seventh in the world. Since then, the national team has not duplicated its feat. And that was the only time the country finished among the top 10 in the premier global event.
Glenn was not the only Filipino to win a medal in Buenos Aires. NM Glicerio Badilles took the gold on the reserve board—for Hong Kong, where he stayed for a while under martial law.
Actually, the Philippines had also been among the top contenders at the 18th Olympiad held in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1968 where at one point it was vying with England for second place overall.
Its loss on all four boards to the powerful Soviet Union in the fifth round, however, proved too heavy a drag, and in the closing rounds, the Philippines started faltering.
Fortunately, the team managed to qualify for the Group A final while England did not make it.
On the Philippine team were Eugene Torre and his brother Vic, Ruben Rodriguez, Rico Mascariñas, Glenn Bordonada and Ricardo de Guzman.
In the 1974 Nice Olympiad, it is clear that Torre on top board and Bordonada on the lower board combined to lift up their team.
It is also clear from the score of his game against Sax—dug up from the archives by journalist Ignacio Dee—that what sustained Bordonada was his indomitable fighting spirit, which obviously inspired his teammates. A pity that he chose not to become a fixture on the Olympiad team!
Glenn went on to write a pithy chess column for the Inquirer but his career as a corporate executive—he is one of our pioneering computer experts—made him leave the game, and he never played competitive chess again.
• Gyula Sax, HUN (2505) - Glenn Bordonada, PHI
21st Olympiad, Nice, France, June 17, 1974
Caro-Kann ,Panov-Botvinnik Attack
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.cxd5 Bg7 7.Bb5+ Nbd7 8.d6 e6 9.Nf3 0–0 10.0–0 a6 11.Be2 b5 12.Ne5 Bb7 13.Bf4 Nb6 13...Nxe5! was stronger, e.g., 14.Bxe5 Ne8! 14.Bf3 Nfd5 15.Nxd5 Nxd5 16.Bxd5 16.Bg3 Re8 would have given White a clear edge.
16…Bxd5! 17.Qd2 f6 18.Nd3 Ra7
18...Rc8 19.Nb4 favors White.
19.Rfe1 g5 20.Bg3 h5 21.h4
21.h3 f5 22.Be5 f4 would have given White a distinct advantage.
21…Bh6
If 21...gxh4 22.Bf4!
22.Bh2
22.Nc5! should be played, e.g., 22…gxh4 23.Qxh6 hxg3 24.d7 Rxd7 25.Nxd7 Qxd7 26.Re3 gxf2+ 27.Kxf2, and White would have a huge advantage.
22...Rg7² 23.Nb4 Bxg2!!
After 23…Bxg2!A bold offer of a bishop against a GM just to breach his defenses.
24.Qe2?? Under pressure, the GM crumbles.
24…gxh4! 25.Bg3 Bb7 26.Qxh5 hxg3 27.Qxh6 Qxd6 28.Nd3 gxf2+ 29.Kxf2 Qg3+ 30.Ke2 Qf3+ 31 Kd2.
White resigns without waiting for Black’s next move as he realizes that he is about to be checkmated.0-1
Also,do check out this write up from Mr. Bobby Ang's Chess Piece Column which appears regularly at BusinessWorld and an online version can be seen at Indochess.
Torre Book
HI! Guess what? Due to the good graces of well-known businessman Don Manolo Lopez, we have finally found a publisher for our book on the best games of Eugene Torre. Details are:
Title: 40 YEARS OF PHILIPPINE CHESS (Eugene Torre and his games).
GM Eugene’s tournament chess career started in the 1967 Meralco Open, where a brilliancy prize inspired him to work harder at it. It is now 2007, 40 years later, and his career has become synonymous with Philippine chess.
Authors: GM Eugene Torre and myself. Raul Sol Cruz from Meralco has agreed to join the team as a researcher
Publishing Date: December 2007
Dimensions: Book will be 6.75” x 9.75”, as is customary nowadays with quality chess publishers. There will be approximately 240 pages.
Games:50-60 games, not necessarily wins. We also look at the historical perspective and Eugene himself wants to include crucial games that he lost. For example there is this game with Gyula Sax of Hungary in the 1982 Biel Interzonal, where he only needed a draw to qualify for the second consecutive time to the Candidates’ matches. Or his game against Zoltan Ribli of Hungary in their candidates’ match – Eugene got winning chances but botched it and even lost the game. What would have happened had he qualified for the next round? Would he have managed to get by former world champion Vassily Smyslov?
I make this announcement today, April 20, because it is my birthday, and I wanted to do something that would give me great pleasure.
My entire Holy Week was spent putting together all the material that have been amassed since we first started on this project last 1998. One thing that struck me when I reviewed the material was how his career intersected with that of the great Hungarian GM Lajos Portisch.
C’mon, don’t shock me by asking who Portisch is. In fact, Lajos Portisch celebrated his birthday early this month. He was born April 4, 1937 in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. His positional style earned him the nickname "Hungarian Botvinnik".
Hungary has always had a strong chess team. In the early 19th century the legendary player Geza Maroczy was the top Hungarian and led his country to two Olympiad victories. He was among the chess elite and was often mentioned as among the strongest players never to become world champion. After the second world war the leader of the Magyar cause was Laszlo Szabo, another chess legend but who, in contrast to Maroczy, was of the combinational persuasion.
Starting the late ’60s up to the early 90s the undisputed top dog in Hungary was Lajos Portisch. He participated in twelve straight Interzonals and qualified for the World Chess Championship candidates cycle five times. He also led the Hungarian chess team to the gold in the 23rd Chess Olympiad held in Buenos Aires with a personal score of 10 out of 14. This was the only Olympiad not to be won by the Soviet Union between 1952 and 1990.
Eugene Torre met up with Portisch in the 2nd round of the Finals of Nice 1974 Olympiad, and played beautifully to defeat Lajos and lead his team to a giant upset over the Hungarian team 3-1. Keep in mind that Hungary placed 2nd in the 1972 Skopje Olympiad to realize the enormity of the feat. A few months later Portisch got his revenge by beating Eugene in the Manila 1974 international tournament.
In the 1979 Rio de Janeiro Interzonal Portisch tried too hard to beat Torre in the first round, sacrificed unsoundly, and lost. He almost got his revenge in 1982 Toluca Interzonal. Eugene was just coming off a 5-game winning streak and was in the lead in the interzonal – the entire Philippines was doing nothing except talking about how an Asian or for that matter a Filipino would be qualifying for the Candidates’ matches for the first time in history, and all he needed was to draw the remaining three games. Everything seemed to be going as planned since the game in the 11th round vs Portisch was adjourned in what looked like a draw. Our delegation was not rejoicing though, for they knew something that the rest of the country did not – Eugene had sealed a weak move. The game continued the next morning and when it was adjourned for the second time it looked like a loss – Eugene was two pawns down in a king and knight endgame. News traveled back fast, and this time the mood in the local chess clubs was down – the general consensus was that there was only a 20 per cent chance to draw.
And then the miracle – completely exhausted from a whole night of analyzing and unable to find the way to a draw, Eugene fell asleep and in the early morning the way to the draw came to him in a dream.
I am sorry, but to read the whole story you have to buy the book.
Here is their last decisive game (so far!) with each other, from the 1990 Manila Interzonal.
Portisch,Lajos (2590) - Torre,Eugenio (2530) [A21]
Manila Interzonal (13), 1990
1.d4 d6 2.c4 e5 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5
Heading for f4.
4...f5 5.Nc3 c6
Portisch plays this system a lot with White. Many players would be tempted to play 5...h6 with the idea of cutting the Knight out of play with 6.Nh3 g5. However, White has the strong move 7.Ng1! planning 8.h4 and Black finds out he is overextended.
6.Nh3 Na6 7.e3 Nf6 8.Be2 Be7 9.0–0 0–0 10.f3 Nc7 11.Qb3 Kh8 12.Bd2 Ne6 13.fxe4 Nxe4 14.Nxe4 fxe4 15.Rxf8+ Nxf8 16.Nf4 Bg5 17.Rf1 Qe7 18.Nh5 Ne6!
Threat is ...Nxd4.
19.Bc1 g6 20.Ng3 Kg8 21.Qc2
[21.Nxe4 Nxd4 22.exd4 Bxc1 (not 22...Qxe4? which is refuted by 23.Bxg5 Qxe2 24.Bh6! White wins a piece at the very least) 23.Rxc1 Qxe4 24.Qd3 Bf5 is equal]
21...d5 22.cxd5 cxd5 23.Qb3 Qd6 24.Bd1 b6 25.Bd2 Ba6 26.Be2 Bb7 27.Bb4 Qc6?
A mistake. He should have played 27...Qd7 . You will see why next move.
28.Bg4?
[28.Nxe4! wins a pawn. Black cannot retake because of 28...dxe4 29.d5 Qxd5 30.Bc4 wins]
28...Ba6
The wind-up by Eugene is very good. From here to the end watch how he ties up his opponent's forces.
29.Re1 h5 30.Bh3 Bh4 31.Qc3 Qe8 32.Qa3 Bd3 33.Bxe6+ Qxe6 34.Bd6 Rc8 35.Be5 a5! 36.h3 Rc2
Threat is ...Qf7.
37.Kh2 Be7!
If 37...Qf7 right away then 38.Qd6 creates complications.
38.Qb3
On b3 the enemy rook is attacked, so that 38...Qf7 is met by 39.Rf1!
38...Qc6! 39.a3 a4 40.Qa2 Qb5
Eugene threatens ...h4 followed by ...Bf1 and White can't stop him. 0–1
The overall score between Torre and Portisch is favorable for the Filipino, 3 wins 5 draws 2 losses. Not bad at all.
Come December, beg, borrow or steal. But don’t miss your copy of 40 years of Philippine Chess – Torre and his Games.
---
Here is an old one about El Eugenio and his games.
"December, December,
come cold or hot,what we want
'is Bobby Ang's book 'bout
Eugene, come now, come now! - chess_kiko"
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