Honoring a legend

BY: JOSE ALEXIS MARQUEZ (a.k.a. spawn2)

(In photo from left: Anthony Navarro, Ed Andaya, GM Eugene Torre, Jose Alexis Marquez, and Allan Dinglasan. Simply click on photo for enlarged view.)

GM Eugenio O. Torre, Philippine chess' "Living Legend," has been representing the country in the international chess arena for the past 40 years. He has matched wits with the best of them. Names like Kasparov, Karpov, Tal, Anand, Petrosian, Topalov and Spassky were some of the legends he fought over the 64-square battle ground.

Just this September 2010, GM Torre played his 20th Olympiad in Khanty Mansisysk, Russia tying the record of GM Lajos Portisch of Hungary with the most number of Olympiad appearance.

A group of chess enthusiasts under the GETS (Grandmaster Eugene Torre Supporters) umbrella hosted a simple dinner at Italliani's Eastwood Libis to hand to GM Torre a plaque of recognition to acknowledge his outstanding achievements as a Chess Olympian.

The group was joined by Mr. and Mrs. Ed Andaya, the sports editor of People's Tonight and an avid chess supporter.

During the dinner, GM Torre said that he will try to be part of the Philippine Team to the 2012 Olympiad not only to set a new record but more important to help the team improve its standing.

Last November in the Asian Games, GM Torre dished out another memorable performance to help Team Philippines bagged the silver medal.

He said that he will continue to play as long as he is still enjoying the game and can continue to contribute to Philippine Chess.

As they say, the Legend continues . . .