Buenos Aires (+8 –0 =11). He won two individual medals: gold in 1931 and bronze in 1939. He achieved a particularly brilliant result playing on top board at Buenos Aires: he was undefeated, drawing with world champion Alekhine, former world champion José Raúl Capablanca, and the young superstar Keres, and won against Vladas Mikėnas, Roberto Grau, Tartakower, and Moshe Czerniak. In 1940 the Soviet Union annexed Latvia. 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, Petrovs was unable to return to his wife and daughter at home in Latvia. He 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. Petrovs was sentenced to ten years in a corrective labor camp. In 1947 his death was announced, but only in 1989 it became known that he had died at Kotlas in 1943 from pneumonia. A rapid chess tournament, the Vladimir Petrov Memorial, was held in his memory in Jūrmala in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. References Further reading Andris Fride, Vladimirs Petrovs: A chessplayer's story from greatness to the gulags (Caissa Editions) Notable games Vladimirs Petrovs vs Kazimierz Makarczyk, The Hague 1928, 2nd Olympiad, Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox, Rubinstein Attack, D64, 1-0 Saviely Tartakower vs Vladimirs Petrovs, Hamburg 1930, 3rd Olympiad, Queen’s Pawn Game, A45, 0-1 Karel Treybal vs Vladimirs Petrovs, Folkestone 1933, 5th Olympiad, Sicilian Defense, Classical Variation, B58, 0-1 Vera Menchik vs Vladimirs Petrovs, Podebrady 1936, Czechoslovakia championship, Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation, D13, 0-1 Vladimirs Petrovs vs Reuben Fine, Kemeri 1937, Alekhine's Defense, B03, 1-0 Gideon Stahlberg vs Vladimirs Petrovs, Łódź 1938, Nimzo-Indian Defense, Spielmann Variation, E22, 0-1 Vladimirs Petrovs vs Alexander Alekhine, Margate 1938, Catalan, Open, E02, 1-0 Vladimirs Petrovs vs Roberto Grau, Buenos Aires 1939, 8th Olympiad, Queen's Gambit Declined, D06, 1-0 Described as "An instructive and convincing game in its very simplicity" Vladimirs Petrovs vs Vladas Mikėnas, Rosario 1939, Catalan, Open, E02 1-0 Vladimirs Petrovs vs Grigory Levenfish, Moscow 1940, 12th USSR ch, Old Indian, A53, 1-0 1907 births 1943 deaths Sportspeople from Riga People from the Governorate of Livonia