Interview by Alexander J. Klemm
During the 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open I met up with last year’s champion GM Jan Gustafsson from Germany to talk about chess, his hometown Hamburg, the Bangkok Open, his impressions of Thailand, and much more.
AK: Congratulations, Jan, your German team OSG Baden-Baden has just won the league title. How does that make you feel and what is the success strategy of your club?
JG: Yes, I’ve read the news online. I can’t take much of the credit but it always feels good to win something. In general, having the strongest players is a good start if you want to win the league. Because of the generous sponsoring of Grenkeleasing [a German incorporation], Baden-Baden is in a situation in which we can afford having Anand and Carlson – even though he didn’t play well – and there are more strong players such as Bacrot, Naiditsch, Svidler, Shirov, and others. So I can’t say it’s a big surprise that we have won the title, but it’s still nice. Bremen put up a fight. It was a close match two rounds ago.
AK: Based on your impressive score of 6.5 points out of 8 games in the German league, do you think your club will ask you to play more often, or is the competition within the team simply too high?
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