Dzimis 1923. gada 9. septembri, Rigā, Latvijā, miris 2014. gada 8. decembrī, Sietlā, WA
America’s oldest International Grandmaster of Chess, Elmārs Zemgalis, died on December 8th in Seattle at the age of 91.
Elmārs was born in Riga, Latvia on September 9, 1923, the youngest of three children. He first learned to play chess at age 11, from his older brother, Edvīns. Even in his youth, Elmārs was considered to be among the most talented chess players in Latvia. After he graduated at the top of his class from the First Municipal High School in Riga, he obtained a degree from the Institute of Teachers’ Training in Jelgava and began to pursue Medicine at the University of Riga, but he had to flee war torn Latvia in 1944. He was able to escape on a fishing boat out of Riga, and by train arrived in Germany’s northern province of Schleswig-Holstein. Elmārs did not see active duty during WWII since he was infirmed due to health concerns.
In 1946 Elmārs was able to reunite with his mother and sister in Bavaria, at the displaced person (DP) camp. His brother, a member of the Latvian Legion, fighting the communist aggressors, had died in battle. In the small village of Neunburg vorm Wald, Elmārs met his future wife, Cacilia, while lunching on park bench. They wed in 1948. With his knowledge of English and German, he subsequently took on the important position of employment officer with the International Refugee Organization.
He first gained the attention of the chess world by his second place finishes at Augsburg and Regensburg in 1946, but it was his tie for first with World Championship contender Efim Bogoljubow at Oldenburg 1949 that really made him known. There he finished above such players as Unzicker, Rossolimo, Saemisch, O’Kelly, Wade, Tautvaisas, and Enevoldsen, scoring an undefeated 12 from 17. These results and other strong performances in Germany from 1946 to 1950 led him to receiving the Grandmaster title from FIDE in 2003.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports writer Royal Brougham had the foresight to include a chessmaster in his program to bring displaced sportsmen from Europe to Washington state. This made it possible for Elmārs and Cacilia to move from Germany and settle in Seattle in 1952. Their arrival was immediately celebrated with two special events. The first saw Elmārs play 50 players simultaneously at the P.I. auditorium with hundreds of spectators watching. The second was a match against the leading Washington chess master Olaf Ulvestad who had competed in the 1946 USA-USSR match. Elmārs won convincingly 3-1. He would later win the Washington State Championship in 1953 and 1959.
With honor society ranking and degrees in mathematics from the University of Washington (MA) and Seattle University (BS), Elmārs worked at Boeing as a research mathematician (early 1960s), prior to becoming a tenured math instructor at Highline College. He authored several textbooks for algebra and calculus, as well as contributing research articles for mathematical journals. Elmārs continued to enjoy teaching at Highline College until his retirement.
Elmārs love for chess, and his chess colleagues, locally and internationally, was evident throughout his retirement years. He played correspondence chess by mail, and later via the internet. He often reflected on how miraculously chess had shaped his life story. Elmārs held Latvia dear, and was able to return for visits, after the fall of the Iron Curtain. He was a member of Seattle’s Latvian Lutheran Church and the Latvian Association of Washington State, as well as Bellevue Sister Cities (Liepaja, Latvia is a sister city). Elmārs was preceded in death by his siblings, Edvīns and Rasma, and his wife Cacilia.
Memorial donations can be made to the Seattle Chess Club, www.seattlechess.org , or the Latvian Lutheran Church.