Jan Gustafsson is a Chess Grandmaster with Elo ratings above 2600 from FIDE, making him one of the best German Chess players in history.
Last Updated: July 23, 2022
Full Name: Jan Gustafsson
Title: Grandmaster
Born: June 25, 1979
Place of birth: Germany
Federation: Germany
Ratings
World ranking: 121
Rapid: 2641
Blitz: 2548
Classical: 2638
Profiles
Biography
Jan Gustafsson is a German chess player born June 25, 1979, in Hamburg, West Germany. His parents were sailors in the Mediterranean Sea after taking a break from their early careers. As they spent time sailing in the sea, Gustafsson developed an interest in chess games. This is because the chess game was one of the sports that was playable on the boat; therefore, many sailors participated in the game. Gustafsson then began playing chess in a local chess club in Spain, where he lived with his parents before moving back to Germany.
The Beginning
Gustafsson started his chess career in his youth and was first featured in a chess tournament in 1992. This was when Gustafsson was selected to join the Under 13 section of the German national team. He won the under 13 German chess championships with the team and was the first remarkable performance he achieved in his chess career. In 1994, Gustafsson won the German championships Under 15 division. Two years later, he successfully won the German championships for the under 17 division and also in the under 20 division of the team championships.
He won his international master’s title in 1999 and later qualified for a grandmaster title in 2003. This made the FIDE organization grant him the highest title the same year to become one of the top-rated chess players in Germany. He qualified to play in the German chess championships, where he finished in second place in the 2004 and 2005 editions of the tournament. However, he was the winner of the German chess championships in the Blitz chess held in 2001. In 2002, Gustafsson was nominated to join the German national team. He represented the country in four chess Olympiads games, including the 36th, 37th, 38th, and also in the 40th edition.
Gustafsson was also part of the chess players that represented Germany in the European chess championships in 2011. He won the tournament with the German team. In the same year, Gustafsson competed in the Thailand open tournament. He tied on the first to third position with Francisco Vallejo Pons and Nigel Short, winning the games on a tie-break basis. He later won this tournament in 2019, making him a two-time competition winner. However, he won it on a tiebreak with a veteran chess player Deep Sengupta, scoring 7/9 points in the tournament.
Achievements
Gustafsson is a keen chess player with significant achievements in the chess industry. He was part of the team that founded the chess.com site. Gustafsson analyses different chess games and commentates on them regularly for this website. In his analysis, Gustafsson uses notable games and makes their video analysis. This made him named among the top five best online chess broadcasters by Edward Winter, a chess historian. In addition, Gustafsson is also the author of the 2007 poker book with Marcel Luske, a Dutch poker.
He is also a professional expert in opening theory, which made him appointed to be part of the team led by Mangus Carlsen. He led the team in the World chess championships in 2016 against strong player Sergey Karjakin.
Gustafsson also represented the team in the World Chess Championship in 2018 against veteran chess player Fabiano Caruana. For the last time, he represented the team in the world chess championships of 2021 against the Super Grandmaster, Ian Nepomniachtchi. He was also granted the Senior trainer title by the FIDE organization in 2018.
Did you enjoy reading about Jan Gustafsson? If you did, you might also be interested in reading about players like Rey Enigma, Jan Smeets, and Ilya Smirin.
Sources
- Internationale Fränkische Grossmeistertage Archived 2016-06-10 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
- Deutsche Meisterschaft 2004 (in German)
- Deutsche Meisterschaft 2005 (in German)
- 28. Deutsche Blitz-Einzelmeisterschaft 2001 Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
- “Thai Open: Gustafsson ahead of Vallejo and Short on tiebreak”. Chess News. Chessbase GmbH. 17 April 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- “Jan wins his 2nd Bangkok Chess Club Open”. Chess24.com. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
- “Gustafsson bags Bangkok Open”. Chess News. ChessBase. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
- “Jan Gustafsson player profile”. Chess24.com. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- Winter, Edward. “9085. Live chess broadcasts on the Internet”. Chess Notes.
- Poker für Gewinner der systematische Weg zum Erfolg im Limit Texas Holdem