Torre places second in 3rd Canadian Int’l Chess Classic

June 11, 2010   MANILA — Asia’s first Grandmaster Eugene Torre playing under the banner of National Chess Federation of the Philip- pines (NCFP) president/chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr. finished second place with six points on account of four wins, four draws and one loss in nine outings in the 3rd Calgary International Chess Classic last May 20 to 24 at the Calgary Chess Claub in Alberta, Canada.

The Filipino dumped Canadian Interna- tional (IM) Raja Panjwani in the ninth and final round to have the same output with IM Renier Castellanos of Spain and IM Edward Proper of Canada.

Torre opened his bid on a bright note after beating FM Dale Haessel of Canada then notched four straight draws against FM Hansen, GM John Fedorowicz and GM Nick de Firmian of the USA and Proper before nipping Castellanos in the sixth round.

He scored back-to-back victories against Richard Wang and IM Panjwani of Canada in the last two rounds but not good enough to capture the title and settle for second to fourth places with Castellanos and Proper.

However, in the crucial seventh round, Torre lost to GM Mikhalevski for the coveted chess title.

Top seed Israeli GM Victor Mikhalevski (2614) ran away with the title with seven points plus the champions’ purse of US$ 1,500 after a quick draw with the disadvan- tageous black pieces in the last round to allow his opponent, local Fide Master Eric Hansen, to make his final IM norm on his 18th birthday.

The nine round Swiss-System applied a time control of 40 moves in 90 minutes, then

Final Standings: (9 round Swiss- System, 18 player’s field)

7 points — GM Victor Mikhalevski (Israel)

6 points — GM Eugene Torre (Philip- pines), IM Renier Castellanos (Spain), IM Edward Proper (Canada)

5.5 points — GM Nick de Firmian (USA), FM Eric Hansen (Canada), IM Leon Piasetski (Canada)

5 points — GM John Fedorowicz (USA)

4.5 points — FM Dale Haessel (Canada), Robert Gardner (Canada)

4 points — IM Rana Panjwani (Canada),Richard Wang (Canada)

3.5 points — Richard Wang (Canada)

3 points — IM Lawrence Day (Canada)

2.5 points — Kevin Me (Canada)

2 points — Knut Neven (Canada), Alex Yam (Canada)

1.5 points — IM Marc Esserman (Canada)