Eugene Torre rose to fame when at the age of 22, he became the Philippines and Asia's first Grandmaster. He achieved this feat in 1974 by winning the silver medal in the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France. He represented the Philippines in 17 Chess Olympiads the last being in 2016 where at age 65, he won the bronze medal in board 3. Incidentally, Wesley So representing the USA won the gold.
Wesley and Eugene sharing honors in the 42nd Olympiad.
In 1976, Eugene beat then reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov in a tournament in Manila. He scored 4.5 points to win. Other participants were Walter Browne of the USA and Ljubomir Ljubojevic of Yugoslavia.
In the 1980s, Eugene ranked 17th in the world and in 1984 qualified for the Candidates Matches. Unfortunately, he lost to Hungary's Zoltan Ribli by a score of 4-6.
Eugene against the legend Mikhail Tal, Karpov watching the game.
In 1992, Eugene served as Bobby Fischer's second when he faced Boris Spassky in a match in Yugoslavia. In later years, he would develop friendship with Bobby.
In 2021, Fide inducted Eugene into the World Chess Hall of Fame, becoming the first male Asian chess player to be given such honor.
Today, he still serves as coach of the Philippine team and plays in a local professional chess league in the Philippines.
Notable games:
Karpov - Torre 1976
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1041314
Tal - Torre 1973
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1140121
Torre - Larsen 1977
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=2470413
Short - Torre 2012
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1688401
