Stepan Mykhailovych Popel[a] (August 15, 1909 – December 27, 1987) was a multiple chess champion of Lviv, Paris, and eventually of the Ukrainians in North America (USA and Canada).

He went on to become the best chess player in the region and is now regarded as one of the important masters of pre-World War II Europe.

In 1929, Popel won a championship of Lviv, followed by E. Kaufman, Henryk Friedman, Oskar Piotrowski, etc.

In 1943, Popel published his handbook Poczatki szachista (Introduction to Chess) in Ukrainian at Kraków.

Because of the Red Army's approach, he did manage to avoid deportation to Siberia or any worse fate during the Soviet occupation (e.g., that of Vladimirs Petrovs).

He also won the North Central Open at Wisconsin in 1957, where his young competitor Bobby Fischer took 6th place.

Around 1960, Stepan Popel became a professor of French language and literature at North Dakota State University in Fargo.

In 1996, the now Ukrainian city of Lviv hosted their first International Chess Tournament in memory of Stepan Popel.