"Campo and I"

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 14 May 2010)

The recent weeks have seen a sadder chess world, as three giants passed away almost one after another.

Last March 27 former world champion (1957-1958) Vasily Smyslov died of heart failure in a Moscow hospital three days after his 89th birthday.

Then on May 3, 2010 the former FIDE president Florencio Campomanes (in photo) died in Baguio City of cancer. He was 83.

Finally, as if to mark the turning of a page, the world’s oldest living grandmaster, GM Andre Lilienthal (born 5 May 1911), died in Budapest, also just three days after his 99th birthday. He was also the last of the original international grandmasters who had their titles awarded by FIDE in 1950. We will revisit this great player’s career in a future column.

The one which particularly saddened me was the passing of Mr. Campomanes. He was my mentor, friend and ally for a short but exciting period in my life before our relationship soured -- but let us concentrate on the good years.

Casto "Toti" Abundo, former secretary-general of the FIDE and Campo’s ever loyal right-hand man, wrote an article about Campo’s life in chess which can be downloaded from the FIDE site:

http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS/download/campolegacy.doc

A very brief highlight of his accomplishments:

He was a highly educated person: B.A. (cum laude), University of the Philippines, 1948; M.A., Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1951;
Doctoral Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1949-1952
Fullbright Grantee, 1948. He became a Lecturer in Political Science in UP from 1954-1956. He had to quit his position in UP to go play in the 1956 Moscow Olympiad. The Philippines did not have any diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and this was the height of the cold war.

As a chessplayer:
1) tied for second place with Edmar Mednis (yes, Mr. "How to Beat Bobby Fischer") in the 1954 New York State Championship.
2) became the first Philippine national master in 1956 together with Ramon Lontoc, Jr. I mention this because I know that Campo was very proud of this. Read the book of Philippine chess history -- first GM, Eugene Torre, first IM Rudy Tan Cardoso, first NM, Campomanes and Lontoc.
3) represented the Philippines in five Chess Olympiads: Moscow 1956-Board 2, Munich 1958-Board 3, Leipzig 1960-Board 1, Tel Aviv 1964-Board 4, Havana 1966-Board 4. Campo told me that for Moscow Olympiad 1956 he was supposed to be the top board, but when they arrived in Moscow there were so many organization details to take care of that he requested Badilles to play on board 1 in the first round, not realizing that he cannot change the order anymore.

The following is his most famous game. It is a loss to Mikhail Tal, the "Magician from Riga." It was the first game for Tal since he became world champion, and the chess press was out in numbers to record the occasion. I had annotated this game several years ago and reproduce my notes then.

Tal, Mihail -- Campomanes, Florencio [B15]
Leipzig ol (Men) qual-B Leipzig (4), 1960
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As an organizer (in the Philippines):

What can I say? Organized virtually all major chess tournaments in the Philippines up to the time he became FIDE president in 1982 and even after. Here are the biggest events -- 1956 1st Asian Zonal (Cardoso champion)

1974 World Juniors (won by Tony Miles)

1976 Interzonal in Manila (won by Henrique Mecking)

1977 1st Asian Junior Championship (Murray Chandler)

1978 Karpov vs Korchnoi world championship match in Baguio, won by Karpov

1987 World Juniors (Anand champion)

1990 Interzonal in Manila (won by Gelfand)

1992 30th Chess Olympiad in Manila (won by Russia)

As a chess politician:

1) we will no longer consider his other positions as Deputy President, Zonal President etc etc. Suffice it to say that from 1982-1995 he was the President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), the first Filipino ever to become head of a world sports body

2) brought chess to Africa, Asia and Latin America, increasing the FIDE membership by at least 50 federations

For me whenever I think of Campo the name that comes to mind is "Taras Bulba," the Cossack Chieftain who sometime in the mid-1600s led a Cossack revolt against Poland. His son though falls in love with a Polish princess and is forced to go over to the other side. Taras Bulba encounters his son on the field of battle and kills him for his betrayal.

Flashback to the year 2000 when Campo, myself, Bong Villamayor and Eugene Torre led a revolt against the Philippine Chess Federation (PCF). We organized the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and presented ourselves before the General Assembly of FIDE in Istanbul that we should be the one recognized as the official governing body for chess in the Philippines.

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumshinov was an important ally. He reminded everyone that the Philippine Chess Federation was brought to FIDE by Mr. Campomanes in 1956, and called Mr. Campomanes the father of the chess federation. And now that insensitive bureaucrats have destroyed the ideals on which the Federation was originally organized for, with his own hand Campomanes has slain his son and brought with him, at the age of 73, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines, his second child to FIDE. A standing ovation then followed, and there was no question anymore of which federation was going to win.

We will continue this story on Monday.