MANILA, Philippines – The legendary Eugene Torre, one of the greatest Filipino chess players of all time, is back from semi-retirement.
Torre, 70, veered away from playing active chess three years ago to focus on coaching the national team but has recently came out of hibernation after accepting an invitation to see action in the Open section of the 57th American Open Chess Championships set November 22-27 in Orange, California.
“I never really tired. I just choose my tournaments, mostly senior tournaments,” said Torre.
The first Grandmaster in Asia and World Chess Hall of Fame inductee said he accepted the invitation for her to see her daughter, Alaska-based Nicole, and his grandchildren for the first time in a long while.
“I want to visit them in Alaska after the tournament. We last visited them five years ago,” he said.
Torre’s last best performance came in the 2016 World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan where, at age 65, he snared the Board 3 bronze medal with a scintillating performance of 10 points out of 11 rounds on nine wins and two draws.
He would have claimed the gold had the old format been applied.
The mint went to Cavite-born American Wesley So instead.
It was one of the four medals he captured in the Olympiad, the most by any Filipinos so far.
Torre though did not commit if he would want to see action in the Olympiad again or the Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia next year.
But there is hope Torre would turn back time, and steer the country back to chess glory just like the old times.