Torre bewails politics in sports

Asia’s first chess grandmaster Eugene Torre said the other day too much politics blurs the focus of the country’s athletes in competing for honors in international competitions.

I had a chance conversation with Torre at the wake of our assistant sports editor Gerry Carpio’s son Peter John in the St. Peter Memorial Chapel on Quezon Boulevard. Torre and I were joined by Elmer Yanga and his wife Esper in consoling Gerry, his wife Emma and their children Patrick Jonathan, Paul Jerome and Aileen.

Peter John was only 19, a second year college student taking up computer science. His death was a shock. Gerry fondly called him a computer nerd. Peter John was on his way home in a jeepney when, hanging on to a handle bar at the back, he lost his grip and fell on a pavement. He was rushed to the Quirino Memorial Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival with a fractured skull. The jeepney driver has been charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.

It’s often difficult to understand why things happen. In Peter John’s case, it’s difficult to understand why he would be called by the Lord at such a young age with a bright future ahead in his life. But as mere mortals, we are not blessed with the capacity to understand destiny. As Christians, we entrust our fate to God, pray for His mercy, place our faith in His infinite wisdom and live our lives to the best of our ability according to the teachings of the Bible to praise the Lord. All we know is there is a divine reason for everything, that God’s will has a meaning for everyone.

There is no doubt that God has a special place for Peter John in heaven. Now, he can look over his loving parents, brothers and sister from above. Now, we can pray to him as our angel to guide us until it is our turn to embrace the Lord in everlasting life.

Torre and Gerry go back a long way. Gerry is extremely knowledgeable in chess and has covered a slew of Chess Olympics. In fact, he’s bound for Majorca, Spain, where the Philippines will compete in the 36th World Chess Olympiad on Oct. 14-31.

There are 10 players–six male and four female–in the national team. In each match, a country will field four males and three females. The Philippine squad is made up of Joey Antonio, Mark Paragua, Jayson Gonzales, Darwin Laylo, Emmanuel Senador, Joy Lomibao, Beverly Mendoza, Loreshyl Cuiso, Aices Salvador and Torre.

Antonio, 42, and Torre, 52, are two of the country’s five grandmasters so far. Paragua, 20, recently earned a grandmaster norm and will be conferred officially during the coming Olympiad as the sixth Filipino to achieve the feat after Torre in 1974 (when he was 22), the late Rosendo Balinas in 1976, Antonio in 1990, Bong Villamayor in 2000 and Nelson Mariano this year.

Torre made his Olympic debut in 1970 and is playing in its 18th straight World Chess Olympiad. He has played Board One since 1972 but in Majorca, will likely take Board Three to give way to Antonio and Paragua. Torre and Antonio were teammates when the Philippines wound up seventh–its best-ever finish–at the Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1974. That was also when Torre bagged a silver medal, finishing second in the standings to gold medalist Anatoly Karpov. Torre’s collection of Olympic medals includes a bronze from Malta in 1980 and another bronze from Dubai in 1986.

Paragua is the hottest chesser in Philippine chessdom today. He recently topped two tournaments in the Ukraine to clinch the grandmaster norm.

Torre said the future is wide open for Philippine chess and if only there is less politics, the country could easily produce as many as 50 grandmasters.

"We’re fighting against each other when we should be concentrating on competing against the opposition in international tournaments," lamented Torre. "We’ve got the talent. We’ve got the brains. But too much politics leaves us with little energy left for competitions. If we can only agree to come together, we’ll be able to achieve so much more."

Torre pointed to 10-year-old wunderkind Wesley So as a potential grandmaster. So nearly made the national team during the recent qualifying tournament in Tagaytay. "What I like about Wesley is his ability to prepare for his matches by himself," said Torre. "I don’t think his father knows too much about chess. But Wesley is a fast learner and absorbs a lot from what he reads in books and the internet."

Torre said former world champion Bobby Fischer, a close personal friend, is the prime example of a chess player who prepares on his own and competes without the help of a horde of coaches. Torre was Fischer’s second when the eccentric American emerged from a nearly 20-year isolation to beat Boris Spassky in the much-ballyhooed "Revenge Match of the 20th Century" in Montenegro in 1992.

"I consider Bobby to be the greatest chess player ever," said Torre. "Not only because of his genius but also his nerves." Fischer, 61, is now detained without a passport in Japan. In a recent long distance phone call, Torre said Fischer told him he is being held in a detention center near a nuclear facility. Fischer has been in virtual imprisonment the last three months.

Torre recounted that Fischer defied a US government order to abort his match against Spassky in 1992. The order was made because of US economic sanctions on the war-torn former Yugoslavian state. Fischer was informed he would be slapped a $250,000 fine, imprisoned for 10 years or both if he played Spassky. To express his defiance, Fischer called a press conference and spat at the US document affirming the order in front of startled newsmen.

A warrant was subsequently issued for Fischer’s arrest by US authorities and he hasn’t stepped on Stateside soil since the Montenegro incident. Fischer was in exile when his mother Regina, who has Jewish roots, died in 1997 in the US.

Torre said Fischer used to pay $80 a month for a US storage company to warehouse his prized possessions, including trophies, medals, classic chess boards, rare souvenirs and assorted memorabilia. But Fischer later discovered his possessions were auctioned off presumably to the tune of several millions of dollars.

In 1996, Fischer reemerged to announce a new board game called "Fischer Random Chess" in Buenos Aires. The idea was to randomly shuffle the initial squares of the pieces to reduce the incidence of an overpowering opening move, theoretically making creativity and talent more critical factors. Although "random" chess is not widely played, a world championship tournament was organized last year.