In August–September 1939, Engels played for Germany in the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires. He won two gold medals, both team and individual (at third board: +12 –0 =4). When World War II broke out, Engels along with all other members of the German team (Eliskases, Michel, Becker, Reinhardt) and many other participants of that Olympiad (Stahlberg, Najdorf, Frydman, Czerniak, Winz, Rauch, Kleinstein, Raud, Feigins, Luckis, Pelikan, Skalička, Sulik, Gromer, Seitz, de Ronde, Sonja Graf, Paulette Schwartzmann, etc.) decided to stay permanently in Argentina. He tied for 4th-5th in the Mar del Plata 1941 chess tournament (Gideon Ståhlberg won). In 1941, he tied for 3rd-4th with Hector Rossetto, after Eliskases and Marcos Luckis in Montevideo. In July 1941, he tied for 3rd-4th in Águas de São Pedro (Eliskases and Guimard won).