Carlos Torre Repetto


Carlos Jesús Torre Repetto was a Mexican chess grandmaster.

Biography

While Torre was Mexican by birth and citizenship, he spent much of his early life in New Orleans and developed as a young player under the tutelage of the New Orleans player E. Z. Adams. Torre later published an extraordinary combination that was supposed to have occurred in a game Z. Adams–Torre and featured White's victory. It was determined subsequently that this combination was never played in a game; Torre's attribution of it to Adams was an homage to his teacher.
Torre first came to international attention when he attended the great New York 1924 tournament and impressed both the American and European Grandmasters with the high quality of his speed chess and analytical ability. The website Chessmetrics.com places Torre as eighth in the world following his tour of Europe. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1977.
Torre's career was cut short by mental illness. Torre spent much if not the remainder of his life hospitalized following his breakdown in 1926. A coming marriage that was broken by a Dear John letter is believed to have played a role in his breakdown, according to The Oxford Companion to Chess. Chess historian Edward Winter, however, regards this as an open question. Reuben Fine visited him many years later and found that he still played very well.

Major tournament results

Torre won the Louisiana state championship at New Orleans 1923, and began to reach world prominence in 1924. He was first at Detroit 1924, followed by Samuel Factor, Herman H. Hahlbohm, Norman Whitaker, Samuel Reshevsky, etc. He won at Rochester, New York 1924. In 1924, Torre took third place in New York.
In 1925, he made his European debut, in events with much stronger and deeper fields of more experienced Masters. Torre took tenth place in Baden-Baden. In 1925, he tied for third/fourth place with Frank Marshall, behind Aron Nimzowitsch and Akiba Rubinstein, in Marienbad. In 1925, he tied for fifth/sixth place with Savielly Tartakower in Moscow. In 1925, he tied for second/third place in Leningrad. In 1926, he tied for second/third place with Géza Maróczy, behind Marshall, in Chicago. In 1926, he won, ahead of Jose Joaquin Araiza, in Mexico City.

Legacy

The chess opening Torre Attack is named after him. It is characterized by the moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5. Torre also introduced the Mexican Defence to chess theory in a match against Fritz Sämisch in 1925 in Baden-Baden, Germany. It runs: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6.

"The Windmill"

In the Moscow 1925 chess tournament, Torre defeated former world champion Emanuel Lasker with a queen sacrifice. The famous sequence is known as "The Windmill":
Torre wins with a queen sacrifice, as his rook and bishop form a grindstone that crushes Black with a series of checks and discovered checks.