Jan Gustafsson

Jan Gustafsson (born 25 June 1979) is a German chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2003. He is a co-founder of Chess24.com, and regularly analyses and commentates games for the website.

Not to be confused with Jan Gustafson or Jan-Åke Gustafsson.

Jan Gustafsson
Gustafsson in 2007
CountryGermany
Born (1979-06-25) 25 June 1979
Hamburg, West Germany
TitleGrandmaster (2003)
FIDE rating2620 (October 2023)
Peak rating2652 (November 2010)
Peak rankingNo. 85 (April 2005)

Biography

Gustafsson was born in Hamburg. His parents took a break from their careers when he was a child to spend a few years sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, and Gustafsson started playing chess in this setting as there were few other sports that were playable on a boat. The family then lived in Spain before returning to Hamburg, where Gustafsson played in the local chess club. He soon became a strong player and was part of the team that won the U13 German Team Championship in 1992. Two years later, he won the U15 German Chess Championship, and in 1996 he won both the U17 Championship and the U20 Team Championship.[1]

Gustafsson was granted the title of International Master in 1999 and that of Grandmaster in 2003. He is one of the strongest German players; he finished second in the 2004 and 2005 German championships,[2][3] and won the German championship of blitz chess in 2001.[4] He was nominated to the German national chess team in 2002, represented his nation at the 36th, 37th, 38th and 40th Chess Olympiad, and was part of the German team that won the 2011 European Team Chess Championship.

In April 2011, he tied for 1st–3rd places with Nigel Short and Francisco Vallejo Pons in the Thailand Open in Bangkok and won the event on tiebreak.[5] In April 2019, Gustafsson won this tournament for the second time, on tiebreak over Deep Sengupta, each having scored 7/9 points.[6][7]

Gustafsson is involved in the Chess24.com project, in which he makes video analyses of notable chess games, and has been named by the chess historian Edward Winter as one of the top five Internet chess broadcasters.[8][9] He is also a poker player and in 2007 co-authored a book on poker together with Dutch professional poker player Marcel Lüske.[10]

Gustafsson is an expert in opening theory, and was part of Magnus Carlsen's team for the 2016 World Championship against Sergey Karjakin,[11] for the 2018 World Championship against Fabiano Caruana and for the 2021 World Championship against Ian Nepomniachtchi.[12] In 2018, he was awarded the title of FIDE Senior Trainer.

References
  1. 2. Internationale Fränkische Grossmeistertage Archived 2016-06-10 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
  2. Deutsche Meisterschaft 2004 (in German)
  3. Deutsche Meisterschaft 2005 (in German)
  4. 28. Deutsche Blitz-Einzelmeisterschaft 2001 Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
  5. "Thai Open: Gustafsson ahead of Vallejo and Short on tiebreak". Chess News. Chessbase GmbH. 17 April 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  6. "Jan wins his 2nd Bangkok Chess Club Open". Chess24.com. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  7. "Gustafsson bags Bangkok Open". Chess News. ChessBase. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  8. "Jan Gustafsson player profile". Chess24.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  9. Winter, Edward. "9085. Live chess broadcasts on the Internet". Chess Notes.
  10. Poker für Gewinner der systematische Weg zum Erfolg im Limit Texas Holdem
  11. Schulz, André (9 December 2016). "Inside Team Carlsen: Q&A with Peter Heine Nielsen". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  12. "Hemmeligheten avslørt: TV-kommentator hjalp Magnus Carlsen til VM-seier". Aftenblad. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
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