Treasuring our long-standing friendship with Asia’s first grandmaster Eugene Torre, our small group of chess aficionados whose ages now exceed the number of squares of a chess board thought we should celebrate with him his success at the 42nd Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan from September 1 to 14 this year.
We did this at a quiet and cozy hotel lobby in Malate where the main attraction was its Iberian chicken that had to be ordered four hours in advance. As expected, all discussions centered on El Eugenio —as what Business World’s Chess Piece columnist Bobby Ang reverently calls him—and his most memorable chess games in local and international tournaments for almost the past half-century.
The Baku Olympiad was the 23rd for El Eugenio, the most number of Olympiads for any player in chess history. Also, his 270 games are the most number of games by any player and his record of 103 wins, 124 draws and 43 losses for a total score of 165 points is second best in Olympiad history, surpassed only by Hungarian Grandmaster Lajos Portisch’s 176½ points in 260 games.
Only 18 years old when he debuted 46 years ago in these Olympiads in Siegen, West Germany in 1970, he was already 64 years old by the time he played in Baku. Amazingly, his 10 points out of a possible 11 was the highest as he emerged undefeated, and winner in all his games except in two fighting draws.
His winning percentage of 90.9 percent at board three would have earned him the gold medal under the old rules, but he was only awarded the bronze medal for his performance rating of 2836 because of the new system of the Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation. That system, incidentally, was the brainchild of our actuarial friend and Elo rating expert Memet Sangalang.
Ironically, it was 23-year -old Grandmaster Wesley So of Team United States who was awarded the gold medal for obtaining the highest performance rating of 2896 despite a winning percentage of only 85.0 percent. Yes, he was our chess prodigy who started playing at age nine in local tournaments in Bacoor, Cavite and who last manned our board one at the Istanbul Olympiad in 2012.
In fact, El Eugenio’s Baku bronze medal was his fourth at the Chess Olympiads. He has won his previous three medals at board one in Nice, France in 1974, in Valletta, Malta in 1980, and in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 1986.
With veteran journalist and sportswriter Iggy Dee and former Chess Asia feature writer and poet-by-heart Ed Orozco acting as if they were El Eugenio’s personal historians and archivists, our discussions revolved around his games and his achievements. Consequently, we barely noted that 20-year-old Janelle Mae Frayna had become our first ever Woman Chess Grandmaster in Baku.
Neither did we pay attention to our Filipina chess players’ 34th place final standing, which was much better than the disappointing 58th of our Men’s team, and just took for granted that the biennial tournament attracted 175 countries in the Men’s section and 138 countries in the Women’s.
Our discussions shifted only to other chess issues when Deputy Cabinet Secretary Peter Laviña arrived. He used to coordinate Davao City’s sports activities, and knows very well its chess officials and players who were once members of our Chess Olympiad teams – James Infiesto, Alex Lupian and the late Mirabeau Maga.
Laviña was so convinced about the beneficial effects of playing chess that he is advocating its inclusion in the elementary education curriculum and its use as a tool in rehabilitating illegal drug dependents.
Immediately, he suggested that we revive our chess development program at the grassroots level.
Specifically, he encouraged us to reactivate the Philippine Chess Society, which was previously headquartered in the late 1990s at the Grandmaster’s Café in Timog Avenue. Real estate magnate Jerry Acuzar – now more famous for his Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Bagac, Bataan – was our chess patron then who graciously provided the place.
It was there where PCS trained promising chess players before they played abroad. FIDE President Florencio Campomanes, his Secretary General Toti Abundo, Senate President Koko Pimentel and other chess greats had passed through its doors and played a few games inside its cozy area that conveniently transformed into a social club at night.
We emphasized the three Es in a chess player’s life – education, excellence, and enjoyment. He first gets educated in chess theories, tactics and strategies, and proceeds to achieve excellence by competing in tournaments against other chess masters. He then settles down to enjoy the royal game via friendly matches with any wood pusher, which I did last Sunday by playing against my barber.
We have known that all workers undergo similar phases. They learn a trade, get a job, and retire expecting that they’d be enjoying decent pensions.
Sadly, most don’t, and might not even get a pension like El Eugenio. However, they still could enjoy old age by continuing to play chess—win, lose or draw.