He is also well known for having served as Bobby Fischer's second during his 1992 match with Boris Spassky.
His opponent in this featured game, Yuri Balashov of Russia, has been rated over 2600 and has a win over Anatoly Karpov to his credit.
Balashov had the white pieces and Torre used his pet defence, the Pirc or Yugoslav Defence.
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 the Pirc Defence, named after the Yugoslav Grandmaster who was among the first to appreciate the counterattacking possibilities of this elastic defence.
4. Be3 c6 5. Qd2 b5 Black shows his deep understanding of the position by avoiding 2 tempting but inaccurate moves. Here... Bg7 would lose a tempo to a future Be3-h6 and moving his queen early would be misguided as what black really need is quick counter play on queenside and in the center.
6. Bd3 Nbd7 7. Nf3 e5 8. a4 b4 9. Ne2 exd4 10. Nexd4 c5 11. Ne2 Bg7 12. Rd1 Bb7 13. Ng3 0-0 14. 0-0 Re8 15. Bf4 Bf8. The game is about equal as the weak pawns on e4 and d6 cancel out.
16. Rfe1 a6 17. Bc4 d5 18. Ba2 safer was 18. exd5. Now black destroys white's once proud center in truly hypermodern fashion.
... b3 19. Bxb3 c4 20. Ba2 dxe4 21. Ng5 Rc8 22. h3 Qb6 23. a5 Qa7 24. Kh2 Qc5 25. N5xe4 Nxe4 26. Qxd7 Bc6 27. Nxe4 Bxe4 28. Bd6 the losing move. Necessary was 28. Re2 or 28. Bg3.
... Bxd6+ 29. Rxd6 Kg7 30. Re2 Bf5 White resigns.
The author's (Hernandez) friendly game against Torre happened in early 1980's while Torre is promoting his book "Beyond The 13th Move" by Eugene Torre at the Alemar's Bookstore in Makati.
Hernandez had bought that book a week earlier so he took another book from the shelves to have Torre autograph it.
The book featured Torre and entitled "1972 Asian Zonal -- Champion --Torre." After signing it, a sales lady of the bookstore, who was a neighbor of Hernandez, asked them if they like to play a friendly game.
Torre said okay but just one game. They played on a medium size chessboard where Torre won a pawn in the opening. Hernandez was able to penetrate in Torre's kingside and won a whole rook in exchange of a pawn.
Overwhelmed by his advantage, Hernandez overlooked the safety of his own kingside and Torre counterattacked with his queen and bishop.
When Hernandez is about to be mated in one move, he shook the hand of the champion.
Ten years later, they both participated in the national championship where the top six finishers will represent the Philippines in Chess Olympics held every two years.
Torre was the top seed then and Hernandez was 218th out of 240 contestants in that 13 round Swiss system tournament.
Torre topped that tournament while Hernandez scored 6 points in 13 games against players whose ratings were not lower than 1800.
Solution to last week's puzzle: 1. Qh6 Rg8 2. Qxh7 Kxh7 3. Rh5 mate.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Page 14
June 18-25, 2004
(Photo by Almario Marlon Bernardino)
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