VINTAGE TORRE EYES WORLD CHESS CUP IN ASIAN INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS TODAY

EUGENE Torre, Asia’s first Grandmaster has only one thing in his mind right now, and that is to return in the World Chess Championship scene when the 2010 Asian Individual Chess Championships opens today, April 20-30 at the Subic Exhibition and Convention Center in Subic.

“Target ko talaga na makapasok sa main draw ng World Chess Cup (World Chess Championships), hope maganda nawa ang performance natin dito sa Subic Asian Continental Chess,” said Torre, the 1982 Inter-Zonal champion and the first Filipino who made it to the Candidates matches in the World Chess Championship but lost to Hungrarian GM Zoltan Ribli.

“ Pero anuman ang maging resulta, sana may mga Filipino ang makakuha ng slots sa World Chess Cup,” said Torre, who also scheduled to do a rare simultaneous exhibition on May 2, Sunday against members of the BAPTODA Tricycle Association in Barangay Kaunlaran and San Martin de Porres in Cubao, Quezon City dubbed as “Defense Chess Challenge,”.

Aside from Torre, other Filipino bets gunning for four (4) slots in the World Chess Cup, Subic qualification tournament with the men’s division champion will bring home the lion’s share of US$6,000 are GMs Wesley So, Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., Darwin Laylo and Jayson Gonzales.

So, Antonio and Laylo, seeing in action in the during the last World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiyk, Russia. The 16-year-old Filipino champion So, who   was described as a “gold nugget” by the  foreign chess  press  after beating former world championship candidates  GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, and  GM Gata Kamsky of  the United States but lost to GM Vladimir Malakhov of Russia in the fourth round, knock-out system format.

A total of  60 players,  including 19 from China and 12 from India,  have already confirmed  their participation in this  annual event  which serves as qualifying tournament  for the 2011 World Chess Cup according to National  Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/chairman  Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr.

“We  have  very good  records in the  Asian  Individual Championships, so  I  expect our players to continue  the  trend,” added   Pichay,  who  plans to host as many  as  five  international tournaments this year to give the much-needed  exposure to the Filipino players.

The Filipinos will go up against a  crack  foreign delegation, which included  GMs Ni Hua (ELO  2667) , Zhou Jianchao  (ELO 2650) and Li Chao  ( ELO 2613) of China,  Krishan Sasikiran  (ELO  2686) and Pentala Harikrishna  ( ELO 2660) of India, Le Quang Liem (ELO 2689), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (ELO 2642) and  Dao Thien Hai (ELO  2523),  Susanto  Megaranto  (ELO  2527) of  Indonesia, Zhang   Zhong  (ELO 2603) of Singapore and  Anton  Fillipov  (ELO 2598)  and Khamrakulov   Djubarek (ELO 2509)  of Uzbekistan.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO.