Biography.guide
Home › People › Chess composer › Hermanis Matisons
Portrait of Hermanis Matisons

Hermanis Matisons

1894 – 1932

Latvian chess player

Chess composerChess player
Don't just read it — keep itBiographies to ownE-book · Audio · Video From $7 →

About Hermanis Matisons

Lived 1894 – 1932 (aged 37). Hermanis Matisons was a Latvian and Russian chess composer and chess player.

Hermanis Matisons (; 1894, Riga – 1932) was a Latvian chess player and one of world's most highly regarded chess masters in the early 1930s. He was also a leading composer of endgame studies. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 37.

In 1924, Matisons won the first Latvian Chess Championship tournament. Later that year he finished ahead of Fricis Apšenieks, and Edgard Colle to win the first World Amateur Championship, which was organized in conjunction with the Paris Olympic Games, followed by Max Euwe in 1928. Matisons played first board for Latvia at the 1931 Chess Olympiad in Prague and defeated Akiba Rubinstein and Alexander Alekhine, then the reigning World Champion.

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

Biography shop

Don’t just read it —
keep it.

Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.

  • E-book
  • Audio
  • Video
Browse the shop — from $7

Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free

Important facts

Birth century
Occupation
Chess composer, chess player

People in Hermanis Matisons's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Hermanis Matisons's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Hermanis Matisons?

Latvian chess player (1894-1932)

When was Hermanis Matisons born?

Hermanis Matisons was born on 28 December 1894 in Riga.

When did Hermanis Matisons die?

Hermanis Matisons died on 16 November 1932 in Riga.

What was Hermanis Matisons's occupation?

Hermanis Matisons was a chess composer and chess player.

What nationality was Hermanis Matisons?

Hermanis Matisons was Latvian and Russian.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Hermanis Matisons

· Wikidata: Q960542

· DBpedia: Hermanis Matisons

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Hermanis Matisons. https://biography.guide/hermanis-matisons/

MLA: "Hermanis Matisons." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/hermanis-matisons/.

Chicago: "Hermanis Matisons." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/hermanis-matisons/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Page generated 2026-09-27 05:23 UTC