The Philippine’s godfather of chess will long be remembered for bringing the game to new heights.
FLORENCIO Campomanes touched different people in different ways. Among the Western nations, Campomanes was despised as a dictator who overstayed his tenure as president of the World Chess Federation (Fide) and played an instrumental role in dividing the chess world.
Among the Third World countries, however, Campomanes was seen mostly as a champion who succeeded to the world body’s highest position and who opened up chess to the world and brought the game to its greatest prominence.
Who was right and who was wrong? Without a doubt, both sides would have their grounds and justifications to cast Campomanes as their hero or villain. I don’t believe he cared very much for the labels. Ultimately, he wanted only results, not how the job got done. But all that is now behind him.
Instrumental role: Florencio Campomanes (1927-2010) was the former president of the World Chess Federation.
Last Monday, Florencio Campomanes, popularly known as Campo to his friends and enemies, died in his native Philippines. He was 83.
I first got to know Campo back in 1974 when he was deputy president of Fide. Asia was his main playground then, and chess was just taking off in the continent.
He came to Penang for the inaugural Asian team championship and, at its conclusion, received the challenge trophy from our second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak. Campo was truly the public face of the Philippines’ chess team.
In 1978, he organised the acrimonious world chess championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Baguio City and, in 1982, achieved his ambition of becoming Fide president. His election to the world body’s top position, on the promise of elevating chess to greater heights, created a buzz everywhere.
As Fide president, he sowed the seeds that would eventually see Fide being accepted into the fold of the international Olympic movement. This wasn’t a short-term process; it took years before the walls could be broken down.
But his Fide presidency was marred by controversy. By 1984, Garry Kasparov’s star was rising and he was knocking on Karpov’s door. The 1984/85 world championship match was organised with rules different from today’s. It was a match in which a player needed to score six decisive victories, draws not counting.
Karpov was unable to deliver the final win and he enabled Kasparov to extend the match to 48 games. After five long months of play, Campo decided to abandon the match, citing players’ fatigue as the decision. There would be a rematch later in the year, limited to 24 games.
While this might have been seen as a logical decision – a tough decision, actually – that any Fide president would have to make, it did not go down well with many chess federations in the West. They claimed that Campo’s decision was scandalous and unilaterally made to favour the tiring Karpov at a time when an invigorated Kasparov was starting to get stronger at the chessboard. They said there was no precedent to stop the match but, precisely, it was Campo’s job to set a precedent if one was required.
Campomanes weathered all the criticisms and went on to achieve his second high point as Fide president by bringing the biennial Chess Olympiad to Manila in 1992. It was again a first for Asian chess as never before had any Third World country organised such a large-scale team chess event in this part of the world.
But chess was never the same after that. During Campo’s tenure as Fide president, Kasparov declared that his world championship title never belonged to the World Chess Federation and he could choose to defend his title any time he liked or wanted. Not surprisingly, Kasparov had the support of the western chess federations and most of the top western chess grandmasters.
So chess went in two separate directions. Kasparov had his own version of a world chess championship running for several years, while Fide continued with its own regular world chess title series. It was not until 2006 that there was unification again.
The pressure on Campo began to tell and, in 1995, he stepped down as Fide president and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov took over. Nevertheless, Campo remained active in the chess world and was made Fide honorary president which allowed him to roam the globe as chess ambassador.
He never slowed down; not even a horrendous car crash in Turkey in 2007 was able to stop him. Though warded in hospital with his neck in a brace, he received all guests and insisted on playing chess with them on his hospital bed. That was his dedication to the game.
Campo turned up often in Malaysia because he was a fast friend of Datuk Tan Chin Nam whom he first met in 1974. It was mainly Campomanes that persuaded Tan to stand for Fide election in 1982. Every time Campo came to town, he came as a guest of Tan.
I can’t remember the last time I met him in Kuala Lumpur. It must have been in the early part of this decade. He was already frail of body but still sharp in mind. He carried with him a distinguished and statesman-like air.
Tan told me: “I have lost an old and dear friend. There will never be another Campomanes.”
Casto Abundo, one-time Fide general secretary, recalled that Campo continued to be active in Fide, Asian and Philippine chess until his bout with cancer reached the terminal stage last year. “He was still strong and hearty on his 83rd birthday last Feb 22 but his health quickly deteriorated. I was at his bedside at the Notre Dame Hospital in Baguio City on May 1. As I thanked him for all our chess years together, he smiled and said, ‘We had fun.’”
Campomane’s death last Monday overshadows the current world chess championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Veselin Topalov. The match still has four days to go, provided it goes the whole distance, and if it ends equal at 6-all after 12 games, tie-break games on May 13 will decide the winner.
However, as at the end of the seventh game earlier this week, Anand was leading Topalov by 4-3. After the turbulence of the first two games, both the players have settled down well into the match.
The third game was drawn and Anand won the fourth game. After that, the next three games were all great fighting draws.