Aleksandras Ziselis Machtas (also Alexander-Zisel Macht, Sasha Maht; 6 October 1892 – 14 January 1973) was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

master. Machtas, a member of the

Lithuanian Sports Club Makabi The Lithuanian Sports Club Makabi is a sports club of the Jewish minority in Lithuania. It is one of the many Maccabi sports clubs worldwide. It was originally established on September 19, 1920 in Kaunas. It ceased to exist during the Holocaust in ...

, won 7 chess championships in the first independent republic of Lithuania: in 1923–24, 1926–28, and again in 1931–32. That is more than any other Lithuanian chess player in the history of independent Lithuania. He took 7th place in the first Baltic Championship held in

Klaipėda Klaipėda (; ; german: Memel; pl, Kłajpeda; russian: Клайпеда; sgs, Klaipieda) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. The capital of the eponymous county, it is the third largest city and the only major seaport in Lithuan ...

in 1931. The event was won by

Isakas Vistaneckis Isakas Vistaneckis (Isaak, Itzhak Vistinietzki) (29 September 1910 in Marijampolė – 30 December 2000 in Tel Aviv) was a Lithuanian Jewish chess player who held the chess title of Correspondence Chess International Master (IM). Biography In 1930 ...

. Machtas twice played for Lithuania in

Chess Olympiads The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

: in 1930, at first board in the

3rd Chess Olympiad The 3rd Chess Olympiad (german: Die 3. Schacholympiade), organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between July 13 and July 27, 1930, in Hamburg ...

in Hamburg (+4 –9 =4) and in 1935, at second board in the

6th Chess Olympiad The 6th Chess Olympiad ( pl, 6. Olimpiada szachowa), organized by the FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and (unofficial) women's tournament, a ...

in Warsaw (+2 –7 =5). He became the first ever chess player to represent Lithuania as first board (top seeded) in a world chess Olympiad and to play in a formal match against a reigning world chess champion Machtas served as the general manager of the largest Jewish bank in the first Republic of Lithuania "Centralinis Zydu Bankas" in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

. In 1936, he emigrated with his family (son Yaacov Macht and others) to

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

(then British Mandate).Macht Family
/ref> In British Palestine and later on in Israel, he founded and was the manager of the Industrial Bank in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

References

External links

litalita.comAleksandras Machtas at 365Chess.com
1892 births Lithuanian Jews Israeli Jews Lithuanian chess players Israeli chess players Jewish chess players Chess Olympiad competitors 1973 deaths 20th-century chess players {{Israel-chess-bio-stub