Olympiad Spotlight: Germany
In the weeks leading up to the Chess Olympiad (10-23 September in Budapest), we at Chessable are on a mission to spotlight some of the most prominent participating countries and their Chessable representatives. And of course, Germany can’t be missing!
Why? Well, for one, Germany has a rich history in chess and has brought forth some important personalities who have had a lasting impact on the chess world. Until today, Germany is among the world’s top countries in terms of chess excellence, which is also reflected in this year’s Chess Olympiad: both German teams (Open and Women) are among the 10 highest rated participating countries.
Other than that, we also need to mention that German chess players and coaches play an important role for Chessable: Germany is the second most represented country in our entire catalog after the US! As many of you probably know, we even have our own section for German-language content on Chessable, with a total of 107 courses and more to come. But even the English Chessable catalog would be unthinkable without the works of German Chessable pioneer IM Christof Sielecki.
Let's explore some highlights of German chess history and Germany’s involvement in the Chess Olympiad.
Legends of German Chess
Particularly in the 19th and early 20th century, Germany and former German regions brought forth some personalities who had a lasting influence on the chess world. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the German chess sphere, you may have heard the following names before:
You probably know the Immortal Game, which is one of the most famous chess games of all time. The player of the white pieces who ultimately won the game was Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen, a German chess composer and unofficial World Chess Champion. Check out the epic finish of the game with Anderssen’s double rook sacrifice followed by a queen sac:
A must-know game. Exercises based on this game and similar motifs can be found in the Chessable course ‘Don't Panic: A Chess Master's Guide to Calculation’ by German FM Martin Kreuzer.
By the way, there is also an opening named after Anderssen: 1.a3. We’re currently still missing this in our collection of opening repertoires, so if you want to cover this, you should consider submitting your 1.a3-repertoire to the Create Your Own Course contest!
Another great name in German chess history is Siegbert Tarrasch. He was one of the strongest players and most important chess theoreticians of the late 19th and early 20th century. Interestingly, he played first board in the very first Chess Olympiad in London in 1927. Several opening variations are named after Tarrasch, most notably the Tarrasch Defence of the Queen's Gambit and the Tarrasch Variation of the French Defense.
The Tarrasch Defence of the Queen's Gambit. If you’re interested in learning this opening, you may want to take a look at IM Christof Sielecki’s course My First Opening Repertoire for Black which offers a great introduction.
In such a brief outline of German chess history, Emanuel Lasker must not be missing. He was the second world chess champion in history, holding the title from 1894 to 1921, and was actually the only German to ever achieve the title until today. Not only was an opening variation named after him (the Lasker Defense in the Queen's Gambit Declined), but also an opening trap:
The Lasker Trap − an opening trick involving an underpromotion!
We could spend all day talking about legendary players of German chess history, but in the interest of brevity, we fast-forward to the most promising young player of German chess today: Vincent Keymer. The 19-year-old was the youngest German player ever to become a Grandmaster and is considered to be the greatest German chess talent since Emmanuel Lasker. Vincent has all the prerequisites to make it to the top. He is also part of this year’s German Olympic team, which we’ll get into in a bit.
Germany’s Olympic History
Germany has been involved in the Chess Olympiad since its very beginnings in 1927 and has been one of the strongest participating nations in most editions. In the third Chess Olympiad, taking place in Hamburg in 1930, Germany won bronze.
In 1939, Germany was able to clinch the gold medals in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the first and only time. However, this victory happened under exceptional circumstances, as the finals of the tournament coincided with the outbreak of the Second World War, on September 1. Several players decided (or had) to drop out of the tournament. Some important matches were declared drawn by mutual forfeit, including the one between Germany and the runner-up, Poland. It is worth mentioning that all five members of the 1939 German team decided not to return to Nazi Germany after the Olympiad.
After 1939, the Chess Olympiad did not take place again for over 10 years due to the war. In the following editions, Germany secured bronze medals three more times − the open category in 1950 and 1964, and the women’s category in 1978. The open team also managed to win silver medals in 2000.
Since then, there were no more medals for Germany at the Chess Olympiad. However, German teams have consistently been among the top performing countries, mostly in the top 20. In the last Chess Olympiad in 2022, the German Open team finished 18th, and their Women’s team made it to 10th place.
In this year's Olympiad, most players on the German teams have also participated in the Olympiad in 2022, both in the open and in the Women’s section. Let's take a closer look at the two 2024 teams.
The German 2024 Olympiad Teams
With an average ELO of 2663, the German Open team is seeded 8th out of the 197 participating countries. This gives rise to some hope for medals, but the team will have to face strong opponents − most importantly the teams from the US, India and China.
Germany's team does have two considerable advantages though: firstly, it is a very young team (average age: 23.4 years), yet all players are quite experienced − for most of them it’s not their first Olympiad. Secondly, the team has chess prodigy Vincent Keymer playing on board one. Rated 2719, Vincent has been playing quite successfully for the last few years and has shown many times that he can win against the best, even against Magnus Carlsen. Just this week, he won the Rubinstein memorial with a round to spare!
The young German team has already proven that they’re capable of beating strong opponents in last year’s European Team Chess Championship, securing second place with almost the same team constellation − instead of Frederik Svane, his older brother Rasmus was playing.
The German Open team also has one of the best chess trainers in the world as a captain: GM Jan Gustafsson. Jan is well-known in the chess world, with a successful career as a player and coach. He was part of the German team that clinched the historic victory in the 2011 European Team Chess Championship, one of the biggest team successes in German chess to date.
Jan has worked as a second for Magnus Carlsen, among others, and successfully helped prepare him for several World Championship matches. Other than that, Jan also has a lot of experience in the Chess Olympiad, both as a player and as a coach: he played on the German team in the Olympiads of 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2012, captained the Danish national team in 2010, the Dutch team in 2018 and the German team at the last Chess Olympiad, in 2022.
Jan Gustafsson is also popular on Chessable: He has authored two opening repertoires − one for Black: Lifetime Repertoires: Gustafsson's 1. e4 e5, and one for White, in collaboration with CM Vjekoslav Nemec: Gustafsson’s Aggressive 1.e4, which is his most recent and extensive one, laid out in two parts. He also presented the endgame classic ‘100 Endgames You Need to Know’ in German (100 Endspiele, die Sie kennen müssen).
Gustafsson is funny in both English and German, but his signature humor may be even more nuanced in his native language. If you understand German, you’re lucky enough to get to experience it!
The German women's team is also promising this year. With an average ELO of 2380, they are ranked 9th out of a total of 184 participating countries. Among the team members, we count two Chessable instructors: Elisabeth Paehtz and Josefine Heinemann.
Elisabeth Paehtz is playing on board one and is Germany's best female chess player. She has published one of our first Chessable courses in German: Elementare Schachstrategie (En: Fundamental Chess Strategy) − a course teaching basic strategical concepts such as prophylaxis and the importance of king safety.
Playing on board 3 we have Josefine Heinemann, who has also already made quite a name for herself on Chessable. She has published two repertoires for Black − one based on 1.e4 e5, and one on the Semi-Tarrasch against 1.d4. Additionally, she presented the German winner course of our Ceate Your Own Course-contest, submitted by FM Martin Kreuzer we briefly mentioned previously. She also presented the introductory course Everything You Need to Know about Chess for us in German (“Alles, was du über Schach wissen musst”). This makes her an important ambassador for Chessable German.
We hope these little insights have sparked your interest to follow Germany’s teams in the Chess Olympiad, and hopefully also check out some Chessable courses by our top German players. Now is a good time to do so because we decided to celebrate the Olympiad with major price reductions for each of the top countries participating, and, as you may have guessed, currently it’s Germany’s turn!
With more than 50 courses by German authors on sale, you should hopefully find something that covers your chess needs. And don’t worry, you don’t have to learn German to understand them, many of them are actually in English! But if you do speak or at least understand Goethe’s language and haven’t explored the German side of Chessable, we highly recommend you check it out!
Have fun learning and enjoy the Olympiad!
