Torre too got his Memorial

One of the more boring opening lines is the Torre Attack: 1.d4, 2.Nf3 and 3.Bg5. If the Mexican chess player Carlos Torre Repetto (23 November 1905 - 19 March 1978) finds out he's mainly remembered for these opening moves, he'll turn around in his grave (can you say this in English?). This was probably what the organizers were thinking when setting up the Torre Memorial which is held this week.

It's a bit of a strange life story, the one of Carlos Torre's. The Dutch Wikipedia says a lot more than the English version. I translate:

His international career took only a bit more than a year. After he won the Detroit 1924 tournament convincingly, ending before Samuel Reshevsky amongst others, he played the tournaments of Baden-Baden, Mari?ɬ´nbad and Moscow in 1925. His spectacular victory over ex-world champion Emanuel Lasker immediately became widely known.

Because of a psychic disease, of which the cause was not known, he soon retired from the chess world. According to eye witnesses Torre's nutrition pattern was disturbed, and he was almost only eating candy. After he had unclothed himself in a bus full of passengers in New York, he was taken into hospital for several weeks. After he left the hospital he returned to his native country, where he stayed till the rest of his life, never ever playing a serious chess game anymore. A year before his death FIDE gave him the honorary title of grandmaster.

(Feel free to copypaste this to the English Wiki :-) )

A story we will not soon forget! Especially Torre's victory over Lasker is something we should not soon forget:

Torre-Lasker Moscow, 1925

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bg5 c5 4. e3 cxd4 5. exd4 Be7 6. Nbd2 d6 7. c3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 b6 9. Nc4 Bb7 10. Qe2 Qc7 11. O-O O-O 12. Rfe1 Rfe8 13. Rad1 Nf8 14. Bc1 Nd5 15. Ng5 b5 16. Na3 b4 17. cxb4 Nxb4 18. Qh5 Bxg5 19. Bxg5 Nxd3 20. Rxd3 Qa5 21. b4 Qf5 22. Rg3 h6 23. Nc4 Qd5 24. Ne3 Qb5

25. Bf6!! The combination that went into history as 'The Windmill'.

25...Qxh5 26. Rxg7+ Kh8 27. Rxf7+ Kg8 28. Rg7+ Kh8 29. Rxb7+ Kg8 30. Rg7+ Kh8 31. Rg5+ Kh7 32. Rxh5 Kg6 33. Rh3 Kxf6 34. Rxh6+ Kg5 35. Rh3 Reb8 36. Rg3+ Kf6 37. Rf3+ Kg6 38. a3 a5 39. bxa5 Rxa5 40. Nc4 Rd5 41. Rf4 Nd7 42. Rxe6+ Kg5 43. g3 1-0

After a lengthy intro, back to 2006! The Mexicans didn't have that many world class players, and so they are right to have a Torre Memorial. At this moment six rounds of the open group have been played in M?ɬ©rida (the birth and death place of Torre). The first twelve players would qualify for the knockout phase, together with four more players (Bruzon, Ivanchuk, Tiviakov and Harikrishna). However, it seems like Harikrishna did not arrive, after which the organisers decided to let through a thirteenth player from the open group.

Open group standings after round six: 1. Milov (5), 2-15. Leon Hoyos, Nogueiras, Graf, Vl. Georgiev, Gonzalez Zamora, Quezada, De La Paz, Martin Del Campo, Ehlvest, Vera, R. Perez, Zapata, Ibarra Chami, Arencibia (4?Ǭ?), etc.

The first games of the 1/8 final have already been played:

Zapata           - Bruzon       0-1
Gonzalez Zamora  - Graf         0-1
Milov            ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Ehlvest      0-1
Martin Del Campo - Leon Hoyos   0-1
Perez            - Ivanchuk     ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?
Quezada          - Vl. Georgiev 0-1
Tiviakov         ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Vera         1-0
Nogueiras        ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú De La Paz    ?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?

A new edition of the book Good Bishops, Bad Bishops by Wolfgang Uhlmann could have the next position as a puzzle:

Zapata-Bruzon M?ɬ©rida, 2006

26...Bxd4+! What remains is a very strong white-squared bishop for Black and a dark-squared bishop for White that will be of no importance. 27. Bxd4 Bf5 28. a5 h5 29. Bf2 Qe8 30. Qxb4 Bxc2 31. Rc1 Bd3 32. Qc3 Bb5 33. Re1 Re2! and after some more subtleties the Cuban converted the game to victory.

Tiviakov profited from a delusion of his opponent:

Tiviakov-Vera M?ɬ©rida, 2006

Black just played 23...Rg8 and after the repetition of moves 24. Qh3 Ra8 25. Qg4 he decided to take on a3 anyway: 25...Rxa3?? 26. Rxd5! f5 (26... exd5 27. Nf5! f6 28. exf6 Rxa1 29. Rxa1 +-) 27. exf6 Rxa1 28. Rxa1 (28. Nf7+ wins even quicker) 28... Nxd6 29. Qxg7+! 1-0

>> replay round 1 of the 1/8 final