Hermanis Matisons (german: Herman Mattison; 1894,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...

– 1932) was a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player and one of world's most highly regarded

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pre ...

s in the early 1930s. He was also a leading composer of endgame studies. He died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

at the age of 38. In 1924, Matisons won the first Latvian Chess Championship tournament. Later that year he finished ahead of

Fricis Apšenieks Fricis Apšenieks ( Old orthography: ''Fritzis Apscheneek''; 7 April 1894 in Tetele, Courland Governorate – 25 April 1941 in Riga, Latvian SSR) was a Latvian chess master. Biography In 1924, Apšenieks finished 2nd, behind Hermanis Matisons, a ...

, and Edgard Colle to win the first World Amateur Championship, which was organized in conjunction with the Paris

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, followed by Max Euwe in 1928. Matisons played first board for Latvia at the

1931 Chess Olympiad The 4th Chess Olympiad ( cz, 4. Šachová olympiáda), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female pla ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and defeated Akiba Rubinstein and Alexander Alekhine, then the reigning

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. Sixty of Matisons' endgame studies were collected in the 1987 book ''Mattison's Chess Endgame Studies'' by T.G. Whitworth.

References

* 1894 births 1932 deaths Sportspeople from Riga People from the Governorate of Livonia Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Latvian chess players Jewish chess players Latvian Jews Chess composers 20th-century chess players Tuberculosis deaths in Latvia {{Latvia-chess-bio-stub