Hermanis Matisons

Some infos from endgame specialist von Stephen Rothwell: Hermann Mattison (deutsch) was born in Riga on December 28, 1894. He learned to play chess at the age of seven, but only started to take chess seriously in 1910. In 1913 he became a member of the Riga Chess Club and first attracted attention as a chess player when he beat world champion Capablanca in a simultaneous performance. During the First World War, Mattison served in the Russian army. After the war ended, he became the best player in his country in the first independent Latvia. In 1924 he won the Latvian national championship and the first amateur world championship organized by the newly founded FIDE as part of the eighth chess Olympiad. In the following years he achieved remarkable tournament successes: shared first place in Bad Bartfeld in 1926, third place at the second amateur world championship in The Hague in 1928 and tenth place in the very busy tournament in Karlovy Vary in 1929. At the 1931 Chess Olympiad in Prague he reached on first board for Latvia 50 \% of the points, winning the games against world champion Alekhine as well as Rubinstein and Vidmar. Mattison died on November 16, 1932 at the age of only 37 in his hometown Riga from consumption. Mattison is most remembered by the chess world as an excellent composer of endgame studies. From 1911 onwards, he published a total of a little more than 50 studies, before the turning point of the First World War in Riga newspapers, then in a productive creative period in the 1920s in various Latvian publications, but also internationally renowned specialist journals. Twelve of his studies have been included in the first FIDE album. Mattison's studies are characterized by very natural-looking positions, constructed with excellent elegance and economy, in which a dynamic exchange of blows and lively play of figures by both parties unfolds. The content is often enriched by thematic seductions and a division into several main variants, so that these works still look fresh and modern today and leave an aesthetically satisfying overall impression on the viewer. Mattison's studies are well documented in the literature, with Timothy Whitworth's collections first. For the selection of the studies for this essay, I have formed two main topics that characterize Mattison's works: stalemate studies and profit studies, in which the struggle for peasant conversions plays an important role.

About his life: As a 15-year-old, Matisons had to drop out of high school after his father's death and went to school in an office. Subsequently, his contributions as a chess author were the main source of his existence. His career as chessplayer: From 1922 to 1923 he prevailed among the best of the Riga Chess Society. Matisons, meanwhile a civil servant, won the national championship at the 1st Latvian Chess Congress in April 1924 and in the same year in Paris the amateur world championship (officially: Tournoi international d'amateurs à l'occasion de la VIIIe Olympiade), which was held for the first time by the newly founded world chess association FIDE As part of the 1924 Chess Olympiad. In the final group, he won four games, played three draws and only lost to Max Euwe. At the second edition of this tournament in The Hague in 1928, he was third behind Max Euwe and Dawid Przepiórka. In 1929 he took part in the very strong tournament in Karlovy Vary and finished 10th, leaving chess greats like Géza Maróczy and Savielly Tartakower behind. He played on the first board for Latvia at the 1931 Prague Chess Olympiad and scored 50 percent of the points (three wins, three losses, eight draws), winning against world champion Alexander Alekhine, Akiba Rubinstein and Milan Vidmar. He became famous for his endgame studies. From 1911 onwards he composed a total of 53 studies as well as twelve matte tasks, most of which appeared in Riga newspapers. In foreign publications his name was mostly given in the Germanized form Hermann Mattison. Matisons headed the chess corner of the Riga chess club in the daily Latvis. In 1927 he founded a chess column in the Latvian weekly Atpūta and led it until his death. He died of consumption at the age of 37. His best historical Elo number is 2631. This he reached in 1929, making him temporarily number 12 in the world rankings. About his chess studies: Savielly Tartakower called him "world champion of study composers". Matison's studies are characterized by deep and unusually interesting content and dynamic play on both sides, which is often associated with a seduction that obscures the solution.