45 Facts About Eugene Torre

Eugenio Oliveros Torre was born on November 4,1951 and is a Filipino chess grandmaster.

Eugene Torre did this by winning the silver medal in the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France.

Eugene Torre 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, Eugene Torre was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Eugene Torre served as Bobby Fischer's second in the 1992 match against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia.

Eugene Torre currently plays for the Rizal Towers of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines.

Eugene Torre participated in the 1969 and 1971 editions of the Junior World Chess Championship, an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation.

In 1972, Eugene Torre won the Asian Zonal Championship and became an International Master, becoming the Philippines' third IM after IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso who gained his title after winning the silver medal in the 1956 Chess Olympiad and IM Renato Naranja who achieved his IM title in 1969 when he won the Asian Zonal in Singapore.

Eugene Torre ended up in a tie for 13th-14th places in the 18-man round-robin tournament where he finished with 4 wins, 7 losses and 6 draws but scored big wins over Tal and Larsen.

Eugene Torre defeated the world champion in the second round, and went on to finish clear first ahead of Karpov, a feat no one had yet accomplished since the latter had become world champion.

Later in the same year 1976, Eugene Torre topped the 2nd Asian Masters held from 23 August to 10 September at Jakarta, Indonesia.

Eugene Torre has the distinction of being the first Asian player to earn the title of International Grandmaster.

In 1984, Eugene Torre was selected to play in the second USSR vs the Rest of the World competition billed as the Match of the Century of 1984 held in London, England.

Eugene Torre had an Elo rating of 2565 for this tournament where he contributed 2 points in 3 games, all against Andrei Sokolov, winning 2 and losing once finishing with a performance rating of 2620.

Eugene Torre finished in a tie for 3rd at the 1986 Brussels SWIFT Tournament, a Category 13 event held in April 1986, alongside Timman and Miles posting 3 wins, 7 draws and 1 loss but behind Karpov and Korchnoi.

In 1991, Eugene Torre was invited to play in the Pan Pacific Grandmaster Tournament.

In late 2020, Eugene Torre joined the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines, the first professional domestic chess league in the Philippines.

Eugene Torre was drafted into the Rizal Towers as the league's top pick in its inaugural draft.

Eugene Torre thus became the first male Asian chess player to be given such honor.

In 1988, Eugene Torre captained the Philippine team to its best-ever 7th-place finish in the 28th Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Eugene Torre finished with 9 points on 6 wins, 6 draws and 2 losses manning Board 1 with a high performance rating of 2620 as compared to his Elo rating of 2555.

In 2012, Eugene Torre participated in his record 21st Olympiad appearance at the 40th Chess Olympiad breaking his tie with Lajos Portisch held at Istanbul, Turkey.

Eugene Torre manned Board 3 in this edition of the Olympiad.

Eugene Torre recorded a very high performance rating of 2611 in this Olympiad, higher than his 2469 Elo rating.

Eugene Torre recorded a performance rating of 2527 and gained 9.9 Elo points in the said Olympiad.

Eugene Torre played in all 11 games, the only Philippine player to do so, winning 9 games and drawing 2.

Eugene Torre had a very high performance rating of 2836 and won the bronze medal for Board 3 just behind former teammate Wesley So of the United States and Zoltan Almasi of Hungary.

Eugene Torre gained 46.9 Elo rating points increasing his Elo rating from 2447 to 2494.

Eugene Torre has taken part in six Asian Team Chess Championship.

Eugene Torre has an outstanding record at this tournament where he won the gold medal 4 times: for his score in the 1977,1979,1981 and 1983 editions.

Eugene Torre won the bronze in the 1993 competition.

In 2002 and 2004, Eugene Torre manned the top board for Team Philippines in the 13th and 14th editions of the Asian Cities Chess Championship.

Eugene Torre played Board 3 in the World Student Chess Team Championships in 1969 although he lost his one and only game in the said tournament against William Roland Hartston.

In 2010, Eugene Torre competed in the 3rd Calgary International Chess Classic held at Alberta, Canada where he flashed his vintage form by finishing in a tie for second through fourth places on the strength of four wins, four draws and a solitary loss against winner GM Victor Mikhalevski, the tournament top seed with Elo Rating of 2614.

Eugene Torre had an Elo Rating of 2506 during the said tournament.

In 2011, Torre joined two prestigious international chess championships in the Philippines, the Asian Zone 3.3 Chess Championships and the 2nd Chairman Prospero A Pichay Jr.

Eugene Torre had a low performance rating of 2344 in this tournament.

Eugene Torre won the title via tiebreak over fellow GM John Paul Gomez.

In 2016, Eugene Torre was part of the 2nd batch of inductees of the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame cited by the Philippine Sports Commission.

In 2017, Eugene Torre was invited to the prestigious Reykjavik Open by virtue of his strong performance in the 2016 Olympiad.

Eugene Torre acquitted himself well in this tournament, scoring 7 out of 10 and tying for 11th to 29th places eventually settling for 13th after the tiebreaks.

Eugene Torre worked on Fischer's team in the 1992 rematch with Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia.

Much later, Eugene Torre conducted interviews with Fischer on Filipino radio dzRH MBC Sports Center.

Eugene Torre was involved in 1996 when Fischer Random Chess was launched.

Eugene Torre competed for the Philippines in ouk chaktrang at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia since traditional chess was not among the sport contested in the regional meet.