Jan Gustafsson

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.

Gustafsson earned his IM title in 1999, his GM title in 2003, and is one of the strongest German players; he finished second in the 2004 and 2005 German Championships, and won the German Blitz Championship in 2001. 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. His peak Elo rating is 2652, which he attained in November 2010.

In April 2011, he tied for 1st–3rd with Nigel Short and Francisco Vallejo Pons in the Thailand Open and won the event on tie-break.

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. He is also a poker player and in 2007 co-authored a book on poker together with Dutch professional poker player Marcel Lüske.

Gustafsson is an expert in opening theory, and was part of Magnus Carlsen's team for the 2016 World Championship against Sergey Karjakin.