Miervaldis Jursevskis (born 1921, Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

, Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

) is a Latvian-Canadian chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master.

He left Riga in 1945, just just prior to the Soviet forces arriving. As a displaced person

Displaced person

A displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...

 after World War II, he took place in several chess events in Germany, including Blomberg and Lübeck (both 1945), Meerbeck (1946), and Hanau (1947). In these events, Jursevskis played with strong players from the Baltic countries—along with German and Austrian masters—including Efim Bogoljubow

Efim Bogoljubow

Efim Dmitriyevich Bogolyubov was a Russo-German chess grandmaster who won numerous events and played two matches with Alexander Alekhine for the world championship.-Early career:...

, Friedrich Sämisch

Friedrich Sämisch

Friedrich Sämisch was a German chess grandmaster .-Main results:* 2nd at Berlin 1920...

, Ludwig Rellstab

Ludwig Rellstab

Heinrich Friedrich Ludwig Rellstab was a German poet and music critic. He was born and died in Berlin. He was the son of the music publisher and composer Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab....

, Elmars Zemgalis

Elmars Zemgalis

Elmārs Zemgalis , is a Latvian-American chess master and mathematics professor. He was awarded an Honorary Grandmaster title in 2003.- Biography :...

, Lucijs Endzelins

Lucijs Endzelins

Lūcijs Endzelīns was a Latvian-Australian chess master....

, Romanas Arlauskas

Romanas Arlauskas

Romanas Arlauskas was a Lithuanian-born Australian chess master.Arlauskas played at sixth board in an unofficial Chess Olympiad at Munich 1936...

, and Karlis Ozols

Karlis Ozols

Kārlis Ozols was a Latvian-Australian chess player.Ozols represented Latvia on eighth board in the unofficial Chess Olympiad, at Munich 1936, where he won the individual bronze medal. He also played on fourth board in the 7th Olympiad at Stockholm 1937.In 1937, he tied for 17-18th in Kemeri...

.

In 1948 Jursevskis emigrated to Canada where he eventually settled in Vancouver. He won the British Columbia Championships six times (1949, 1950, 1954-57). He played in three Canadian Championships (1951, 1955, 1957), his best result occurring at Vancouver 1957 when he tied for third, behind Povilas Vaitonis

Povilas Vaitonis

Povilas Vaitonis was a Lithuanian–Canadian International Master of chess. He was a five-time Lithuanian champion, and was twice Canadian champion...

 and Géza Füster

Géza Füster

Géza Füster was a Hungarian-Canadian chess International Master.Born in Budapest, he won his first of many Budapest Championships in 1936. During World War II, he played in several strong tournaments. In 1941, he won the Hungarian Championship...

.

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