Karel Opočenský

Karel Opočenský ( born February 7, 1892 in Brüx, † November 16, 1975 in Prague) was a Czech chess master.

Opočenský won four league titles Czechoslovakia: 1927, 1928, 1938 and 1944, he represented his native country at four Chess Olympiads in 1931, 1933, 1935 and 1939, where he achieved the best result at the Olympics 1933.. He scored 88.5 % ( 10, -0 = 3) on the fourth board. Opočenský participated in numerous international tournaments, with its shared first place in Prague in 1938 and his first place in Arbon 1946 protrude. In 1941 he defeated at the European tournament in Munich the reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine. 1950 FIDE awarded him the title of International Master, 1951 he was International Arbiter. He served as Chief Judge the world championship matches Botvinnik - Bronstein 1951 Botvinnik - Smyslov 1954, also the Candidates Tournament in 1953 and the Chess Olympiad 1952.

According to calculations of its historical Elo rating Opočenský reached its highest value of 2618 in May 1936. In March of the same year he was accordingly one of the 23 best players in the world.

Opočenský published numerous articles and books in the Czech language.

Opočenský was married to Vlasta Svobodová ( 1895-1966 ).