Lembit Oll

Lembit Oll (23 April 1966 – 17 May 1999) was an Estonian chess grandmaster.

Oll was born in Kohtla-Järve and was already successful as a junior, becoming champion of Estonia in 1982 and junior champion of the Soviet Union in 1984. He also won multiple European and World junior championships. FIDE awarded him the IM title in 1983 and the GM title in 1990. From that moment, he regularly played for Estonia during Chess Olympiads and European team championships. Early 1998 he reached his highest position on the FIDE ranking list: 2655. He played his last tournament in 1999 in Nova Gorica reaching a shared second position.

Oll, who was married with two sons, fell into severe depression after he divorced. He committed suicide by jumping out of a fifth-floor window of his house in Tallinn. Despite his personal problems, he still held the 42nd place on the world ranking list at that time. He was buried at Metsakalmistu cemetery in Tallinn, not too far away from the most famous Estonian chess player Paul Keres.^[1]

List of victories

• 1989: Espoo, Tallinn (zonal tournament), Helsinki.
• 1990: Terrassa.
• 1991: Sydney, Helsinki.
• 1992: Seville.
• 1993: Vilnius, The Hague, Antwerp.
• 1994: New York City Open (shared 1st with Jaan Ehlvest).
• 1995: Helsinki, Riga (zonal tournament).
• 1996: Saint Petersburg.
• 1997: Køge, Szeged (shared 1st), Hoogeveen (shared 1st).

Olympiads

Oll played for Estonia four times in Chess Olympiads.

• In 1992, at second board at the 30th Olympiad in Manila (+7 –1 =6);
• In 1994, at first board at the 31st Olympiad in Moscow (+3 –2 =8);
• In 1996, at second board at the 32nd Olympiad in Yerevan (+2 –1 =9);
• In 1998, at first board at the 33rd Olympiad in Elista (+1 –0 =7).^[2]

References

Further reading

• New In Chess, 1999, #4

External links

• Lembit Oll player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Crowther, Mark (24 May 1999). "THE WEEK IN CHESS 237: Lembit Oll 1966-1999". London Chess Center.