Hermanis Matisons


Hermanis Matisons
Association	Latvia Latvia
Born	December 28, 1894 Riga , Russian Empire
Died	November 16, 1932 Riga
Best Elo rating	2631 (September 1929) ( historical rating )

Hermanis Matisons (also Hermann Mattison ) (born December 28, 1894 in Riga , † November 16, 1932 in Riga) was a Latvian chess player and study composer .

Chess player

Matisons's father came from a family of farm workers and moved to Riga at a young age. He worked for a ship carrier when his son was a child. Hermanis learned to play chess at the age of seven, but it wasn't until 1910 that he became more serious about chess. In 1913 he became a member of the Riga Chess Club and won a simultaneous event against José Raúl Capablanca .

Capablanca - Matison's
Simultan, Riga, 1913

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Black to move

The position arose after a complicated game in a persistent fight. Since the black pawns are isolated and the white king is better than his opponent, the matter is not yet trivial. Matisons found the only way to win:

48 ... f5 – f4! Otherwise keeps Ke3 with winning the Bd3 and then Königsmarsch to Bb7 draw . The move therefore gives Black a pace that will prove to be decisive.

49. Kf2-e1 Kh7-g6

50. Ke1-d2 Kg6-f5

51. Kd2xd3 Kf5-g4

52. Kd3-c4 h6-h5

53. Kc4-b5 h5-h4

54. Kb5-b6 h4-h3

55. g2xh3 + Kg4xh3

56. Kb6xb7 f4-f3

57. a5-a6 f3-f2

58. a6 – a7 f2 – f1D and White resigned.

After the conversion of 58. a8D, the processing decides Qf3 + 60. Kb8 Qxa8 + 61. Kxa8 f5 etc. A touch of the future great master of study composition can already be felt.

As a 15-year-old, Matisons had to drop out of high school after the death of his father and started an apprenticeship in an office. In the following years his contributions as a chess author were the main source of his existence.

From 1922 to 1923 he asserted himself 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 ) held for the first time by the newly founded World Chess Federation FIDE Framework of the 1924 Chess Olympiad . In the final group he won four games, played three draws and only lost to Max Euwe . In 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 busy tournament in Karlovy Vary and took 10th place there, leaving chess greats like Géza Maróczy and Savielly Tartakower behind. He played at the Chess Olympiad in Prague in 1931 on the first board for Latvia and achieved 50 percent of the points (three wins, three losses, eight draws), winning against world champion Alexander Alekhine and against Akiba Rubinstein and Milan Vidmar .

He became famous for his endgame studies . From 1911 on he composed a total of 53 studies and twelve matte tasks , most of which appeared in Riga newspapers. In foreign publications his name was usually 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 magazine Atpūta and ran it until his death. He died of consumption at the age of 37 .

His best historical Elo rating is 2631. He achieved this in 1929, which meant that he was temporarily 12th in the world rankings.

Chess composition

After Alexander Koblenz , Matisons was undoubtedly the most talented study composer of the twenties and thirties. Savielly Tartakower called him "World Master 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.

Hermanis Matison's
Viennese Latest News, 1931

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

White to move achieves a draw

White holds a draw. At first glance, this looks impossible because the tied rook and with it the game is in danger of being lost. But there is a salvation based on a stalemate idea :

1. Qf1-b5 + Bb7-d5

2. Qb5xd5 +! e6xd5

3. Rf3 – g3!

The punch line. After eliminating the bishop through a queen sacrifice , White ties himself up. If black beats the rook, white is flat.

3.… d5 – d4 A cunning attempt to win. If White beats the black queen too quickly , he loses the pawn endgame : 4.Rg3xg4 +? Kg5xg4 5. Kh1 – g2 d4 – d3 6. Kg2 – f2 Kg4 – f4 7. Kf2 – f1 Kf4 – f3 8. Kf1 – e1 Kf3 – e3 9. Ke1 – d1 d3 – d2 etc.

4. Kh1 – g2! d4 – d3

5. Kg2 – f1 The white king is now ready to intercept the pawn, and after 5.… Qg4xg3 there is another stalemate.

5.… Kg5 – f4

6. Rg3xg4 + Kf4xg4

7. Kf1 – e1 draw.

literature

Timothy G. Whitworth: Mattison's chess endgame studies. British Chess Magazine, St. Leonards on Sea, 1987. ISBN 0-900846-47-X .
Tim Harding: He could have been a contender. In: Heroic tales. Russell Enterprises, Milford 2002. ISBN 1-888690-13-5 . Pp. 209-219.
Gedimins Salmins: Hermanis Matisons 1894-1932. No Parize Lidz Pragai. Liepja (Ed.), Van Strockum, 2008, ISBN 978-9984-821-27-6 .

Individual evidence

↑ Valentin Fyodorovich Kirillov: Petschat Genija. Nautschno-technitscheskizentr Respublikanskogo schachmatnogo kluba SO Daugawa, Riga 1990. (Russian)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Matisons, Hermanis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mattison, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Latvian chess player
DATE OF BIRTH	December 28, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH	Riga
DATE OF DEATH	November 16, 1932
Place of death	Riga

[1] Valentin Fyodorovich Kirillov: Petschat Genija. Nautschno-technitscheskizentr Respublikanskogo schachmatnogo kluba SO Daugawa, Riga 1990. (Russian)