Tuesday, May 04, 2010

RIP Campo

I've just woken up and the first chess news I spot is that Campo is dead at 83. Whatever we may think of this man, he sure did put Philippines chess on the map! In fact, I'd say that he put chess on the map.

I met him twice, the first time was in Sydney for the Saintly Cup and the second time was in Dresden. He always seemed like a gentleman and very civilised.

Chessvibes has a nice summary of his life.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think no doubt at the end of the day he was a great benefit to Chess.

Rest in Peace Campo

There is an 2005 interview with him on the Chessbase site - in the interview he refered to a book he was writing. No doubt should a book would be a great read. He would have had some great knowledge of Bobby Fischer after 1972 (the Wildness Years).

In fact there are a few unpublished games of Fischer vs Campo including 1973 International Tournament which Bobby open - there must be a news report somewhere on that

Anonymous said...

Campo was a great benefit for Campo.
He was a con man extraordinaire.

His greatest achievement is one GM. Eugene Torre. But Torre was really molded by Cardoso, Naranja, Rodriguez and Balinas.

The Philippines chess became a has- been under his dictatorship.

Campo cemented his legacy as a convicted felon, for making P12.8 million pesos disappear without a trace.

And true to his talent, had another Philippine court overturn the conviction, because of a "technicality".

He was after all the FIDE prez and do not account for people's moneys entrusted to him.

Dr Jonathan Sarfati said...

I played him in blitz a few times in 1988 during a chess seminar in Sukhumi. I won a good majority, because his opening play was very passive. He always seemed a bon vivant in person.