Torre leads PGMA Cup

GM Eugene Torre leading PGMA cup
3rd PGMA Cup round 4
By Ed Andaya

Published on chessdom.com

ASIA’S first GM Eugene Torre is again reminding everyone why he is the country’s No. 1 player for almost four decades.

Torre flashed his old, deadly form to subdue No. 17 GM Li Shilong of China in the third round and last year’s co-champion GM Zhou Weiqi of China the following round to wrest the solo lead in the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Cup international chess championship at the Duty Free Fiesta Mall in Paranaque City.

The 56-year-old Torre, who served as the face of Philippine chess since becoming the fist-ever GM from Asia in 1974, crushed the lower-rated Li (ELO 2511) in 55 moves of the London opening in a morning match and then bested the higher-rated Zhou (ELO 2556) in 56 moves of another London during the evening encounter.

“Sa endgame na nagkatalo. Maganda yung panalo ko. Sana magtuloy-tuloy na,” said Torre, who made history by earning his NM title at age 17 (1969), IM title at age 20 (1970) and GM title at age 22 (1974).

With his back-to-back victories over his Chinese rivals, Torre vaulted into the solo lead with a perfect score of four points in this tough, nine-round tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and supported by Duty Free Philippines, Department of Tourism, Pilipinas Shell, Globe and PAGCOR.

But only half a point behind Torre with 3.5 points is top seed GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan, who drew with No. 18 GM Darwin Lalyo of the Philippines in the third round before beating No. 10 GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia in the fourth round.

Here is the full article.

Officials results and games can be viewed at http://ncfphilippines.org and www.chessasia.net