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Jóhann Hjartarson

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This is an Icelandic name. The last name is patronymic, not a family name; this person is referred to by the given name Jóhann.
Jóhann Hjartarson
Jóhann Hjartarson in Berlin, 2010
CountryIceland
Born (1963-02-08) 8 February 1963 (age 61)
Reykjavík, Iceland
TitleGrandmaster (1985)
FIDE rating2474 (October 2024)
Peak rating2640 (July 2003)
Peak rankingNo. 11 (January 1989)[1]

Jóhann Hjartarson (born 8 February 1963) is an Icelandic chess grandmaster and lawyer. He is a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and a two-time Nordic Chess Champion. With occasional brief interruptions, he was the highest-rated Icelandic player from July 1991 to March 2015.

Since 1998, Johann has been the general counsel and secretary of the Icelandic biotechnology company deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen.[2] Although he retired from professional chess when he began his legal career in the late 1990s, Johann still competes occasionally and remains one of the strongest chess players in Iceland.

Chess career

Jóhann earned the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title a year later.[3] Among his best international tournament results are shared first place at Reykjavík in 1984 and 1992; shared first at the World Open 1991 in Philadelphia; equal third at Tilburg 1988 (+3−3=8); and sixth at Belgrade 1989 (+2−2=7).[4] In 1987 he finished equal first at the Interzonal tournament in Szirák, Hungary and qualified for the World Championship Candidates Tournament in 1988.[5] He defeated Viktor Korchnoi but lost to Anatoli Karpov in the quarterfinals. Jóhann competed in the FIDE world championship held with the knock-out format in 1998 and 2004.

Jóhann won the Icelandic Chess Championship in 1980, 1984, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 2016.[6] He won the Nordic Chess Championship in 1997 and again twenty years later in 2017. With this latter win (in which he edged out Nils Grandelius on tiebreak score),[7][8] Jóhann qualified to play in the FIDE World Cup 2017.[9][10] He was eliminated in the first round by David Navara.

Jóhann has played for Iceland in the Chess Olympiad, World Team Chess Championship, European Team Chess Championship, World Senior Team Championships,[11] World U26 Team Championship, World U16 Team Championship, and Telechess Olympiad and Nordic Chess Cup. Playing at the European Chess Club Cup, he won the gold medal with German team Bayern Munich in 1992.

References

  1. ^ FIDE Rating List: January 1989. OlimpBase.
  2. ^ "MANAGEMENT". deCODE genetics. 2013-02-06. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  3. ^ Gaige, Jeremy (1987). Chess Personalia, A Biobibliography. McFarland. p. 174. ISBN 0-7864-2353-6.
  4. ^ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion To Chess. Oxford University Press. p. 174. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.
  5. ^ Byrne, Robert (1987-09-08). "Chess: Iceland's Johann Hjartarson In Tie for First at Interzonal". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
  6. ^ Schulz, André (2016-06-15). "Johann Hjartarson is back". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  7. ^ "Hjartarson edged Grandelius on tiebreaks at Nordic Championship". Susan Polgar Global Chess Daily News and Information. 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  8. ^ "The Week in Chess 1182". theweekinchess.com. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  9. ^ Þorfinnsson, Björn (2017-07-02). "Jóhann Hjartarson Norðurlandameistari í skák". DV (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  10. ^ Nordic Championship Tournaments 2017 invitation (PDF). Swedish Chess Federation
  11. ^ Schulz, André (2016-07-05). "World Seniors: Germany and Russia win". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
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