Gipslis Aivars Pyetrovic (08.02.1936 – 13.04.2000)

Latvian Grandmaster (1967) and Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, chess writer and editor.
Champion of Latvia in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, and 1966. Gipslis participated in six USSR championships between 1958 and 1970. His best place was third equal with Viktor Korchnoi in 1969.

Best results: Won or shared first at Bad Liebenstein 1963, Pecs 1964, Moscow 1967, Tallinn 1967, Vrnacka Banja 1975, Hradec Kalove 1978 and 1980, Yurmala 1987, Stare Mesto 1992, Pardubice 1994.
Gipslis died of a stroke while playing chess in Berlin. He was playing for a local Berlin chess club when he collapsed from a stroke during the chess game. He died in a German hospital after being in a coma for several weeks.

Peak rating: 2535 in 1976.