By Bobby Ang
BACK IN 1998 GM Eugene Torre asked me to “computerize” him. The chess GM and journalist Ian Rogers wrote back then that there were only around three of the top 100 GMs in the world who do not use computer assistance in their preparation, and Eugene is one of the three.
I think by 2001 GM Torre became so proficient in computers that he did not need me anymore. He even stopped subscribing to and reading the Chess Informants but instead would download the latest chess events weekly from “The Week in Chess (TWIC)” and go over the games with his computer.
However, one thing never changed. In the hours before a serious game he would take out a chessboard and go over his lines slowly over the board without access to computers or books. He wants his ideas to be fresh, from his mind rather than from computers. How many of us play chess now exclusively on computer screens?
I can imagine him going through this routine before round 8 of the 2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiad, while preparing for Nigel Short of England, his long-time nemesis. In the 1985 Biel Interzonal GM Torre had the inside track on a qualifying spot to the Candidates’ match-tournament, but Short beat him and forced a playoff between themselves plus John Van der Wiel of Holland. In those playoffs Torre defeated Van der Wiel but Short beat Torre three straight times and to eliminate our hero.
Torre rocks!
GM Torre belongs to the highest pedestal of Filipino sports legends. His exploits in the 70s and 80s, becoming Asia’s first grandmaster and battling all the elite players in the world, blazed the trail for all Pinoy chessers.
Torre rooks!
The Chess Tower of Power! GM Eugene Torre!