He was born in
Riga, in the
Governorate of Livonia of the
Russian Empire (present-day
Latvia). Though he learned the game of
chess relatively late, at age thirteen, Petrovs made rapid progress. By 1926, at age 19, he won the championship of Riga and finished third in the national championship. He placed 2nd–5th, behind
Isakas Vistaneckis, in the first
Baltic Championship at
Klaipėda in 1931. Petrovs won a match with
Movsas Feigins (+4 –1 =3) in 1931, won a match against
Vladas Mikėnas (+2 –0 =1) in 1932, and narrowly lost a match to
Rudolf Spielmann (+1 –2 =5) in 1934. Petrovs tied for first with
Fricis Apšenieks in 1934, and won the
Latvian Championship in 1935 and 1937. He 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 Ståhlberg and others. This was Petrovs’ finest tournament achievement. Later the same year, he finished last at Semmering. Petrovs placed 3rd-5th at Łódź in 1938, behind
Vasja Pirc and Tartakower, and third at Margate in 1938, behind Alekhine and
Rudolf Spielmann, defeating Alekhine in their individual game. In 1939, Petrovs placed 8th of 16 at Kemeri–Riga, and won at Rosario, ahead of
Erich Eliskases and Mikėnas. Petrovs played for Latvia in all seven official
Chess Olympiads from 1928 to 1939. He also played at the unofficial Olympiad at Munich 1936. • In July/August 1928, he played at third board at the
2nd Chess Olympiad in
The Hague (+5 –4 =7). • In July 1930, he played at second board at the
3rd Chess Olympiad in
Hamburg (+8 –3 =6). • In July 1931, he played at third board at the
4th Chess Olympiad in
Prague (+9 –2 =5). • In July 1933, he played at second board at the
5th Chess Olympiad in
Folkestone (+6 –5 =3). • In August 1935, he played at first board at the
6th Chess Olympiad in
Warsaw (+7 –5 =7). • In August–September 1936, he played at first board at the
3rd unofficial Chess Olympiad in
Munich (+10 –3 =7). • In July–August 1937, he played at first board at the
7th Chess Olympiad in
Stockholm (+5 –3 =10). • In August–September 1939, he played at first board at the
8th Chess Olympiad in
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==