Mario Matouš (Czechoslovakia, 16.06.1947 - 04.07.2013)

Chessplayer and chess composer

 One of the best study composer in chess ever.

Mario Matouš is a Czechoslovak and then Czech chess composer and engineer, born on 16 June 1947 in Mladá Boleslav and died on 4 July 2013 

He is considered one of the greatest contemporary study composers.

In particular, he won the prize for the best study of 2007 at the Congress of the FIDE Standing Commission for Chess Composition.

He led a tragic life in Communist Czechoslovakia, put into a children's home for re-education after his mother was imprisoned when he was three. In spite of an excellent academic record he was only trained as a fitter and never found suitable employment. Thankfully he discovered chess and became one of the most original composers of endgame studies. Mario Matouš died at 66, but his works will live forever.

The life of a genius

Mario Matouš: 1947–2013

By Emil Vlasák

Mario Matouš was born in Mladá Boleslav (55 km north-east of Prague) on June 16th 1947 into an intellectual family – both his parents were language teachers. The three-year-old boy’s first memories are connected with the arrest of his mother, who was imprisoned by the Communist regime for about two years for purely political reasons. As was the practice at that time, the whole family was persecuted. The father was obliged to take a third-rate manual job and the children spent some time in nurseries. Mario declined to participate in “Pioneer” (the mass communist youth organization) and instead worked actively in the Roman Catholic Church. The communists did not forgive such things, and a well-read boy with an excellent academic record obtained permission only to be trained as a fitter.

However, Mario, like most chess players, was not manually skilled and thus had a lifetime problem in finding suitable employment.

Fortunately, Mario had learned chess at the age of nine, and this opened up better prospects. After national service in 1968 he gradually became a master class player. Thanks to his chess contacts he also got a good job. In 1971 Mario won the Central Bohemian championship and as a result played in the Czechoslovak semi-final. Despite the problems with the regime, these were the best years of Mario’s life. He liked chess friends around, jokes and a lot of beer.

Matouš published his first endgame study in 1968, and quickly gained an international reputation. He always needed a lot of beer to get an inspiration. But after getting it, he suddenly changed into an austere and hard-working man. He didn’t sleep, drink or eat, and spent many days and nights feverishly working out the idea. Where a normal composer would test one or two versions, Matouš sifted dozens. There were attempts to improve his studies, but usually Mario just laughed. He had almost everything on his “playground” and knew exactly why he went his way.

The results were excellent – precise constructions in a classical and economical style. He published almost 300 studies and won more then 160 honours (20 commendations, 50 honorable mentions and 80 prizes, 20 being first prizes). He was many times Czechoslovak and Czech champion, and he was a Czech Master of Sport and a FIDE Master.

Matouš spent most of his life in Prague with his girlfriend Hana. He hated the communist regime, but ironically he started to get worse after its fall. He again had problems in finding a job and after several attempts found a haven as a night security guard. Even his tournament results in endgame studies dropped off a little. Matouš became a little hackneyed, and he received more honourable mentions than prizes. However his highest compositional level was maintained until about 2009. Then he became completely overwhelmed by creative depression and Mario stopped publishing altogether.

In February 2008 I met Mario in Prague pub “Na Tremošné” to talk about our forthcoming book. Although I entered the pub before eleven in the morning, it was already too late to catch the Master sober and again we did not make progress. As usual, the talk turned to Mario's monologue about his inward problems. His idol Bobby Fischer had died a month before. “To die at the age of 64 is an ideal chess player’s end,” said Mario. “But Fischer got there first, and if I did so as well it would not be original.” Such a pessimistic mood had unfortunately materialized in Matouš’s lifestyle; consumption accompanied by chain smoking. The final blow was Hana’s death. Mario died on July 4th 2013 at the age of 66 years in a medical institution, almost alone and destitute.

Source: Website: en.chessbase.com

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Website: Dutch Website ARVES.org by Peter Boll