Four wins

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 23 January 2011)

GM Eugene Torre (in photo) may be 60 years of age already, but obviously he still has a lot of fans. When I stopped the coverage of the 1974 Nice Olympiad two weeks ago there were a lot of outraged notes in my e-mail box demanding that I finish the story.

That is a bit too long for this newspaper column, since the Nice Olympiad is the longest Olympiad in history -- 23 rounds! Let us content ourselves with a look at the highlights for GM Torre, which are four crucial wins in the finals.
Here is the first one, in GM Eugene’s own words:

Once in a while in a chess player’s career, though, there are high notes when the whole chessboard becomes suddenly so totally within his mental grasp. The most intricate variations and the deepest strategies become so utterly clear and simple. Something snaps, and the lonely hours of study and analyses suddenly pay off.

For me this happened in the third round of the Finals of the Olympiad, against the powerhouse team of Hungary, against its top board Lajos Portisch.

Portisch has represented Hungary 20 times in the Chess Olympiads, 13 of them on top board. He often acted as the solid foundation from which his team would draw strength from in its drive to the top. In the 1978 Olympiad (Buenos Aires) he scored eight wins, four draws and two losses to lead Hungary to the gold medal, the first time and only time since the ’50s when the Soviet Union had to settle for second place.

The 1974 Nice tournament bulletins remarked that shortly before this Olympiad Portisch had lost a very hard-fought Candidates’ match to Petrosian and was noticeably off-form for his matches here, but I don’t get it -- how can you say Lajos was not at his best when in fact he scored 62% on top board, with six wins, eight draws and two losses (to myself and William Hartston). He defeated GMs Quinteros, Gligoric, Lothar Schmid and Ivan Radulov -- nothing to sneeze at!

Torre, Eugenio (2450) -- Portisch, Lajos (2645) [B08]
Nice ol (Men) fin-A (3), 16.06.1974
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Of course, I did not beat Hungary all by myself -- my teammates were all up to the task. In an upset almost as huge as my win over Portisch, Glenn (in photo) scored his second straight win against strong opposition by breaking through with a mating combination to force Sax’ resignation. Final Score: Philippines 3, Hungary 1. An excellent score!

From this round till I got the GM norm against the American Bob Byrne I did not replace my lucky white T-Shirt anymore.

Gyula Sax was by no means a weakie -- he was the fastest-rising star in the Hungarian horizon. Four years after Nice he was an important cog in the Hungarian wrecking crew of Portisch, Ribli, Sax, Csom, Adorjan and Vadasz which grabbed Olympiad gold from the Soviet Union. He also qualified several times for the Candidates’ matches, but today he had to eat humble pie. Today was for the Filipinos.

Sax, Gyula (2505) -- Bordonada, Glenn [B14]
Nice ol (Men) fin-A Nice (3), 16.06.1974
Caro-Kann Defence, Panov Attack
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