13 Facts About Vladimirs Petrovs

Vladimirs Petrovs was a Latvian Russian chess player.

Vladimirs Petrovs was born in Riga, in the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire.

Vladimirs Petrovs won a match with Movsas Feigins in 1931, won a match against Vladas Mikenas in 1932, and narrowly lost a match to Rudolf Spielmann in 1934.

Vladimirs Petrovs tied for first with Fricis Apsenieks in 1934, and won the Latvian Championship in 1935 and 1937.

Vladimirs Petrovs won at Helsinki in 1936, and tied for first with Samuel Reshevsky and Salo Flohr at Kemeri in 1937, ahead of Alexander Alekhine, Paul Keres, Endre Steiner, Savielly Tartakower, Reuben Fine, Gideon Stahlberg and others.

Vladimirs Petrovs played for Latvia in all seven official Chess Olympiads from 1928 to 1939.

Vladimirs Petrovs played at the unofficial Olympiad at Munich 1936.

Vladimirs Petrovs won two individual medals: gold in 1931 and bronze in 1939.

Vladimirs Petrovs achieved a particularly brilliant result playing on top board at Buenos Aires: he was undefeated, drawing with world champion Alekhine, former world champion Jose Raul Capablanca, and the young superstar Keres, and won against Vladas Mikenas, Roberto Grau, Tartakower, and Moshe Czerniak.

Vladimirs Petrovs finished 10th out of 20 in the 1940 USSR Championship, taking equal third at Riga in 1941, and second in several strong tournaments: Moscow in 1941, behind Isaak Mazel; Moscow in 1942, behind Igor Bondarevsky, and Sverdlovsk in 1942, behind Viacheslav Ragozin.

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, Vladimirs Petrovs was unable to return to his wife and daughter at home in Latvia.

Vladimirs Petrovs remained in Russia and was arrested on 31 August 1942 under Article 58 for criticising decreased living standards in Latvia after the Soviet annexation of 1940.

Vladimirs Petrovs was sentenced to ten years in a corrective labor camp.