Zigfrīds Solmanis was a Latvian chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master.

Chess player career

Zigfrīds Solmanis started to play chess at the age of 6. From him earliest youth participated in various tournaments and other events related to chess. He stood out with his aggressive style of play. In 1938 Zigfrīds Solmanis won the Latvian Chess Club tournament and in 1939 he participated at the second Ķemeri

Ķemeri

Ķemeri resort is a part of Jūrmala in Latvia, 44 km from Riga. From 1928 to 1959, Ķemeri was a separate town, famous for the healing mud baths and luxurious hotel. Now about 2 200 inhabitants live there, while the main hotel is under reconstruction....

 International chess tournament. Zigfrīds Solmanis was a very good speed chess player having won over 70 such tournaments. In 1938 he visited 25 cities in Latvia and gave simultaneous exhibitions with a very good result 74 percent.
After the Second World War, Zigfrīds Solmanis actively involved in reconstruction of Latvian chess life. He was a triple champion in chess in Jurmala and in 1947 won Latvian Chess Championship

Latvian Chess Championship

-History:Professional level Latvian chess players have already appeared in the nineteenth century. They participated in chess tournaments and union congresses, organized by the Riga Chess Association. After the World War I, when Latvia became an independent country, official Latvian chess...

.
In 1947 he took third place in Quarterfinal of Championship of USSR in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

, after the next world champion Tigran Petrosian

Tigran Petrosian

Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was a Soviet-Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else...

.
In 1948 he represented Latvian team at the first table in the USSR team championship semi-finals in Riga

Riga

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

. Until 1964 he almost every year participated in the Latvian Chess Championship

Latvian Chess Championship

-History:Professional level Latvian chess players have already appeared in the nineteenth century. They participated in chess tournaments and union congresses, organized by the Riga Chess Association. After the World War I, when Latvia became an independent country, official Latvian chess...

 finals.

Chess manager

In 1959 after establishing the Latvian magazine "Šahs", he actively participated in its making. Until 1965 Zigfrīds Solmanis was the magazine editor in chief for Latvian edition but him reporter activity is not stopped until his death.
The sixties and seventies worked as a coach, one of his student is Latvian chess champion Anda Šafranska

Anda Šafranska

Anda Šafranska is a Latvian born chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster. Anda Šafranska for many years was one of the best women's chess player in Latvia...

. In the eighties made grandmasters Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal was a Soviet–Latvian chess player, a Grandmaster, and the eighth World Chess Champion.Widely regarded as a creative genius, and the best attacking player of all time, he played a daring, combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability....

 and Aivars Gipslis

Aivars Gipslis

Aivars Gipslis was a Latvian chess FIDE Grandmaster and also an ICCF Grandmaster, and a chess writer.-History:...

 chess school organization, which was a later chess grandmasters Aleksander Wojtkiewicz

Aleksander Wojtkiewicz

Aleksander Wojtkiewicz was a Polish International Grandmaster of chess. He was born in Latvia. In his early teens he was already a strong player; a student of ex-world champion Mikhail Tal whom he assisted in the 1979 Interzonal tournament in Riga. He won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1981...

, Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Shabalov

Alexander Shabalov is an American chess grandmaster, the multiple winner of the U.S. Chess Championships; he was the 2007 US Champion. He was born in Latvia, and like his fellow Latvians Alexei Shirov and Mikhail Tal he is known for courting complications even at the cost of objective soundness...

 and Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...

.
In recent years Zigfrīds Solmanis has devoted much time Jūrmala

Jurmala

Jūrmala is a city in Latvia, about 25 kilometers west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River...

chess life's development. He was a local chess club head, and a lot of time invested in the annual chess festival organization.

External links

player profile at chessgames.com player profile at 365chess.com player profile at chesstempo.com

• Žuravļevs, N.; Dulbergs, I.; Kuzmičovs, G. (1980), Latvijas šahistu jaunrade, Rīga, Avots.(in Latvian), pp. 73 - 74.