CHESS PLAYERS from Philippines

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Filipino Chess Players of all time. This list of famous Filipino Chess Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Eugenio Torre (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 35.73, Eugenio Torre is the most famous Filipino Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages on wikipedia.

Eugenio "Eugene" Torre (born November 4, 1951) is a Filipino chess grandmaster. In 1974, at 22 years old, he became the first Filipino and non-Soviet Asian to qualify for the title Grandmaster. Torre did this by winning the silver medal in the 21st Chess Olympiad in Nice, France. He is considered the strongest chess player the Philippines produced during the 1980s and 1990s, and played for the Philippines on board 1 in seventeen Chess Olympiads. In 2021, Torre was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame. In a tournament in Manila in 1976, Torre was then the only one to beat the then-reigning World Champion Anatoly Karpov in a game that has become part of Filipino chess history. In 1982 he gained a spot in the World Chess Championship candidates matches, where he lost to Zoltán Ribli. He served as Bobby Fischer's second in the 1992 match against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia. He currently plays for the Rizal Towers of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines.

2. Wesley So (b. 1993)

With an HPI of 32.14, Wesley So is the 2nd most famous Filipino Chess Player.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster, a three-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the first World Fischer Random Chess Champion. He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ranked number two in the world and had an Elo rating of 2822, making him the fifth-highest-rated player in history. In 2019, So said his favorite form of chess is chess960 (also known as Fischer random chess). Later that year, So became the inaugural World Fischer Random Chess Champion after defeating Magnus Carlsen to win the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship. A former chess prodigy, So became the youngest player to pass a 2600 Elo rating in October 2008, breaking the record previously held by Carlsen. This record has since been broken by Wei Yi and John M. Burke. In early 2013, So passed 2700 and in January 2017 he became the 11th player to pass 2800 Elo. So represented the Philippines until transferring to the United States in 2014. He won the 2015 Bilbao Chess Masters, the 2016 Grand Chess Tour title after claiming victory in the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic, the 2017 Tata Steel Masters and the 2021 Grand Chess Tour. He represented the US on board 3 at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, winning team and individual gold.

3. Arianne Caoili (1986 - 2020)

With an HPI of 28.86, Arianne Caoili is the 3rd most famous Filipino Chess Player.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Arianne Bo Caoili ( kah-WEE-lee; 22 December 1986 – 30 March 2020) was a Filipino and Australian chess player. She held the FIDE title of Woman International Master, won the Oceania women's chess championship in 2009 and competed in seven Women's Chess Olympiads. Outside of chess, she was a financial consultant and singer, and served as an advisor to Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan.