Career
He was also a leading composer of endgame studies. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 38. Sixty of Matisons" endgame studies were collected in the 1987 book Mattison"s Chess Endgame Studies by T.G. Whitworth.
He was also a leading composer of endgame studies. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 38. Sixty of Matisons" endgame studies were collected in the 1987 book Mattison"s Chess Endgame Studies by T.G. Whitworth.
In 1924, Matisons won the first Latvian Chess Championship tournament. Later that year he finished ahead of Max Euwe and Edgard Colle to win the first World Amateur Championship, which was organized in conjunction with the Paris Olympic Games. 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.