GM Rosendo Balinas Jr.

Balinas was considered the strongest Asian player during the 1960s and early 1970s, before the
emergence of compatriot Eugenio Torre. Balinas won international chess tournaments in Hong
Kong, Singapore, Manila, and Odessa, USSR during the period. At the 1966 17th Chess
Olympiad in Havana, Cuba, Balinas scored 15½ points out of 20 games (.775) and was awarded the
individual silver medal award, behind gold medalist, former world champion Mikhail Tal, who scored
11 points out of 13 games (.846). In the 1967 Meralco "Beat Bobby Fischer" match series in Manila,
of the top 10 Filipino players, Balinas was the only then Philippine national master to hold the future
world champion to a draw:
R. C. Balinas – R. J. Fischer, Manila 1967. Opening "Sicilian, Najdorf, Zagreb (Fianchetto)
Variation"
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.g3 g6 7.Bg2 Bg7 8.O-O O-O 9.h3 Bd7 10.Nde2
Nc6 11.b3 b5 12.Be3 Qc8 13.Kh2 Qc7 14.Nd5 Nxd5 15.exd5 Nd8 16.Bd4 Rc8 17.Bxg7 Kxg7
18.Qd4+ Kg8 19.c3 e5 20.dxe6 fxe6 21.Rad1 Nf7 22.f4 Qc5 23.Qxc5 Rxc5 24.Rd3 Rfc8 25.Rfd1 a5
26.g4 Kf8 27.Re3 Ke7 28.Bd5 Kf6 29.g5+ Ke7 30.c4 Nd8 31.Nd4 bxc4 32.bxc4 Kf7 33.Rde1 exd5
34.Re7+ Kf8 35.Rxd7 Rxc4 36.Ree7 Rxd4 37.Rxh7 Kg8 38.Rhg7+ Kf8 39.Rh7 ½–
½ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044624
Balinas was a seven-time Philippine chess champion, winning the Philippine National Championship
and the Philippine Open Chess Championships. He shared first place at the Meralco-sponsored
1968 Philippine Open championship with world championship
candidate Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić.
In 1975, then-IM Balinas achieved a 5-5 score at the Manila Marlboro Classic International Chess
Tournament, one-half point short of the grandmaster norm, tying with Gligoric for 6th-7th place.
Balinas defeated world championship candidates Lev Polugaevsky of USSR and Bent Larsen of
Denmark, as well as the Czech-American grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek.