Karlis Ozols

Kārlis Ozols (Latvian: Kārlis Ozols; 9 August 1912, Riga – 23 March 2001, Australia) was a Latvian-Australian chess player.

Ozols represented Latvia on eighth board (+7 -1 =7) in the unofficial Chess Olympiad, at Munich 1936, where he won the individual bronze medal. He also played on fourth board (+2 -5 =3) in the 7th Olympiad at Stockholm 1937.[1]

In 1937, he tied for 17-18th in Kemeri. The event was won by three players: Salo Flohr, Vladimirs Petrovs and Samuel Reshevsky. In 1939, he took 16th in Kemeri-Riga (Flohr won). In 1941, he took 8th in Riga (1st Latvian SSR-ch, Alexander Koblencs won).[2] In 1944, he won the Riga championship. In spring 1945, he left Riga by sea just ahead of the advancing Soviet forces, landing in West Germany, and spent the next several years in various D.P. (Displaced Persons) camps across Germany. As did other DPs from the Baltic countries after World War II, he played in a number of small international events, including The Matisons Memorial Tourney in Hanau (near Frankfurt) in 1947, which was won by his fellow Latvian Lūcijs Endzelīns, ahead of Elmārs Zemgalis, Efim Bogoljubow and Hönlinger. Ozols was equal fifth.

He immigrated to Australia in 1949. Ozols won the Victorian Championship nine times. He jointly won the Australian Championship in 1956 and became an International Master at Correspondence Chess in 1972.[3]

Ozols was accused of taking part in war atrocities during World War II, but died before he could be prosecuted.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

On 20 July 1944 Ozols achieved the rank of Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant) and was awarded the War Merit Cross, 2nd class.

References
  1. OlimpBase :: the encyclopaedia of team chess
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20091027143153/http://geocities.com/al2055perv/ch_repub/1941/ch_lat41.html
  3. "Chess Column". Archived from the original on 2 December 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2007.
  4. Fingering the SS, Mark Aarons, The Australia/Israel Review, 1–22 October 1997 Archived 25 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Parliament of Australia, Notices for 15 February 2000 Archived 28 December 2003 at the Wayback Machine, p.54-55
  6. Hansard of Australian House of Representatives Archived 28 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine, 11 February 1999, "War Criminals", Michael Danby, p.166-167
  7. Mario Leoncini, Scaccopoli. Le mani della politica sugli scacchi, Firenze, Phasar, 2008.
  8. Edward Winter, War Crimes (1997, with additions in 2005 and 2008)
  9. Obituary, Ian Rogers, The Canberra Times, 8 April 2001
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