Great Players: Carlos Torre Repetto

 One of the minor benefits of being part of a global internet community is the ability to haphazardly learn about faraway communities, and one of the things I recently learnt is that 16th September is an important date for Mexicans, commemorating as it does the start of the Mexican War of Independence. So, to celebrate that, I thought I would do a piece on one of Mexico's first ever grandmaster.

 Mexico's place in chess history is quite small, and so far eclipsed greatly by that of its northern neighbour, but one man, Carlos Torre Repetto (1904-1978) made a big name for himself during his brief chess career. Although he wasn't active for very long (all the games I have of his are from the years 1920-1928), he managed to defeat some very strong players, most notably former world champion Lasker and future championship candidate Reshevsky. Chessmetrics lists him as world #8 for much of 1926, after some excellent tournament results in that and the previous year.

Sadly, however, that is pretty much where his chess career ended: a mental health breakdown of some sort resulted in his being hospitalized for most of the rest of his life; rumour has it it may have been triggered by the collapse of a relationship.

Apart from his win against Lasker, Torre is perhaps best known for the opening system named after him. The Torre Attack, which he played in many tournament games, is characterized by white's playing d4, Nf3 and Bg5 against almost anything, followed in some order by e3, c3, Bd3 and Nbd2. It's often thought to be quite a quiet opening, although the games of the man himself show that it can carry a bit of a sting for an unwary black.





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