Fighting all the way

Even in his final days, Campo fought on
By REY BANCOD
May 4, 2010, 4:48pm

Florencio Campomanes battled gamely but eventually lost a protracted battle with prostrate cancer Monday, one of few losses he suffered in a colorful and sometimes turbulent career that saw him place the Philippines in the world chess map.

The former political science professor who went on to become president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), is not used to losing. In his final days, he did not want people to see him suffering and advised his closest friends not talk about his condition.

Campomanes died at 1:30 p.m. Monday at a small hotel owned by long-time friend Des Bautista in Baguio City. He was 83.

Marilin Torre, wife of Grandmaster Eugene Torre, was one of the few last persons to see the late chess and sports icon before his death.

Marilin was returning to Manila last Sunday and decided to visit the old man before boarding the bus.

“He was already weak. He had blurred vision. He acknowledged my presence and called my name,” she recalled during a phone interview Tuesday.

Marilin disclosed that Campomanes’ lungs were already filled with fluid, making it difficult for him to lie down and forcing him to sleep in a sitting position.

“He had been sleeping sitting down,” she said.

The morning she visited, Marilin said Campomanes was having breakfast of boiled egg without yolk and toasted bread. He was being fed by 16-year-old son Enzo.

Before that, Campomanes ordered ‘chopsuey’ at 3 a.m., Marilin was told.

Marilin said Campomanes was conscious but alert and even mentioned the name of Ni Hua when the conversation drifted to the recently-held Subic international chess championship.

Ni Hua is the Chinese grandmaster who topped the event.

Even in his last hours, Campomanes lived and breathed chess.

Only two months ago, the silver-haired world leader was still up and about and visited Torre to inquire about their joint venture to develop his lot located near Malacañang Palace.

Campomanes took the opportunity to challenge Torre to a chess match.

“As always, he defended with his trademark Campo Kann. As I was making normal moves, I discovered that he had a good attack going. He did not castle and attacked me relentlessly with the black pieces. I was unable to defend and resigned,” he recalled.

Torre said he had not seen Campomanes so happy, he even asked that a photo taken with the final chess position.

“He (Campomanes) has not beaten me before, but on that day, he played flawlessly,” Torre said.

As a player, Campomanes won the national title twice (1956 and 1960) and represented the country in five World Chess Olympiads (Moscow 1956, Munich 1958, Leipzig 1960, Varna 1962 and Havana 1966).

He started his FIDE involvement as the country’s delegate and used his closeness with then President Ferdinand Marcos to organize the world chess championship in 1978 between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

Source: http://www.mb.com.ph