Eugene Torre, Chess Grandmaster

Talk about world-famous Filipino athletes and the faces that pop up in our minds are probably those of Manny Pacquiao’s, Efren Reyes’ and Paeng Nepomuceno’s. Yet despite this selection, there are still others who definitely deserve to be given credit. For example: chess Grandmaster, Eugene Torre. Born on November 4, 1951, Eugene followed the lead of former grandmasters such as Ramon Lontoc and Rosendo Carreon Balinas, Jr. But his distinction is that he is the first Asian player to earn the much coveted title of International Grandmaster at the age of 22.

Raised in Iloilo City, this chess champion has long been considered as the strongest Filipino chess player ever, even beating chess champion Anatoly Karpov during the former’s championship reign in 1976. Aside from being a trailblazer in the Philippine chess scene, Eugene also won a silver medal at the 21st World Chess Olympiad which was held in Nice, France in the year 1974. Since then, he has been a veteran of the World Chess Olympiad for three decades, leading the Philippine team to a proud 7th place finish at the 1988 Greece Olympiad.