Carlos Torre Repetto
Encyclopedia
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
grandmaster from Mexico.
Torre won the Louisiana championship at New Orleans 1923. He was first at Detroit 1924, followed by Samuel Factor
Samuel Factor
Samuel Factor was a Polish-American chess master.-Biography:During World War I, Faktor was one of the strongest chess players in Łódź . In 1916, he lost a match to Hirszbajn . In 1917, he took 3rd, behind Gersz Salwe, and Teodor Regedziński. In 1917/18, he took 2nd, behind Regedziński...
, Herman H. Hahlbohm, Norman Whitaker
Norman Tweed Whitaker
Norman Tweed Whitaker was an International Master of chess. After more than ten years of campaigning, he was awarded the title by FIDE in 1965 , based on his earlier play . He was involved in a confidence trick involving the Lindbergh kidnapping and went to prison several times...
, Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
, etc., and at Rochester 1924 (with Jennings). In 1924, Torre took third place in New York (Abraham Kupchik
Abraham Kupchik
Abraham Kupchik was an American chess master.Abraham Kupchik was born into a Jewish family in Brest . His family emigrated to the USA in 1903....
won). In 1925, he took tenth place in Baden-Baden (Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...
won). In 1925, he tied for third/fourth place with Frank Marshall, behind Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch was a Russian-born Danish unofficial chess grandmaster and a very influential chess writer...
and Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein was a famous Polish chess Grandmaster at the beginning of the 20th century. He was scheduled to play a match with Emanuel Lasker for the world championship in 1914, but it was cancelled because of the outbreak of World War I...
, in Marienbad. In 1925, he tied for fifth/sixth place with Savielly Tartakower
Savielly Tartakower
Ksawery Tartakower was a leading Polish and French chess Grandmaster. He was also a leading chess journalist of the 1920s and 30s...
in Moscow (Efim Bogoljubow
Efim Bogoljubow
Efim Dmitriyevich Bogolyubov was a Russo-German chess grandmaster who won numerous events and played two matches with Alexander Alekhine for the world championship.-Early career:...
won). In 1925, he tied for second/third place in Leningrad (Quadrangular; Solomon Borisovich Gotthilf won). In 1926, he tied for second/third place with Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy
Géza Maróczy was a leading Hungarian chess Grandmaster, one of the best players in the world in his time. He was also a practicing engineer.-Early career:...
, behind Marshall, in Chicago. In 1926, he won, ahead of Jose Joaquin Araiza, in Mexico City.
Torre's career was cut short by mental illness. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1977.
Legacy
The chess openingChess opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...
Torre Attack
Torre Attack
The Torre Attack is a chess opening characterized by the moves:The opening is named after the Mexican grandmaster Carlos Torre Repetto. The variation was also employed by Savielly Tartakower, and the young Tigran Petrosian on occasion...
is named after him. It is characterized by the moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5.
Torre also introduced the Mexican Defence
Black Knights' Tango
This ambitious move is playable but rarely seen. Black normally responds with 3...Ne5. Then after 4.e4 , Black struck back in the center with 4...Ng6 5.f4 e5 in the seminal game Sämisch-Torre, Moscow 1925. However, Orlov considers both Torre's fourth and fifth moves inferior...
to chess theory in a match against Fritz Sämisch
Friedrich Sämisch
Friedrich Sämisch was a German chess grandmaster .-Main results:* 2nd at Berlin 1920...
in 1925 in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
, Germany. It runs: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6.
"The Windmill"
In the Moscow 1925 chess tournamentMoscow 1925 chess tournament
This international super-tournament, organised by Nikolai Krylenko, was held in Moscow, the Soviet Union, from 10 November to 8 December 1925. It was the world's first state-sponsored chess tournament. There were eleven foreign stars and ten Soviet masters. World champion José Raúl Capablanca and...
, Torre defeated former World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...
with a dazzling queen sacrifice. The combination is immortalized and is known as "The Windmill"
Windmill (chess)
In chess, a windmill is a tactic in which a combination of discovered checks and regular checks, usually by a rook and a bishop, can win massive amounts of material. This tactic is also sometimes referred to as a see-saw...
:
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. 0-0 0-0 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 (diagram) Torre wins with a queenQueen (chess)The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king. With the chessboard oriented correctly, the white queen starts...
sacrifice, as his rookRook (chess)A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. Formerly the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes...
and bishopBishop (chess)A bishop is a piece in the board game of chess. Each player begins the game with two bishops. One starts between the king's knight and the king, the other between the queen's knight and the queen...
form a grindstoneGrindstoneGrindstone may refer to:*Grindstone , a tool used for sharpening*Grindstone, a type of millstone used to grind grains such as wheat*Grindstone , 1996 Kentucky Derby winner and sire of the racehorse Birdstone...
that crushes Black with a series of checksCheck (board game)In games such as chess, shogi, and xiangqi, a check is the threat to capture the king on the next turn to move. A king so threatened is said to be in check. In the following move, the player whose king is in check must get their king out of check, if it is possible...
and discovered checks. 25. Bf6!! 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