Quick Facts
Biography
Jóhann Hjartarson (born 8 February 1963) is an Icelandic chess grandmaster. He is a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and a two-time Nordic Chess Champion. He is the No. 3 ranked Icelandic player as of October 2017.
Chess career
He earned the International Master title in 1984 and the Grandmaster title a year later. Among his best international tournament results are shared first place at Reykjavík in 1984 and 1992, shared first at World Open 1991 in Philadelphia, equal third at Tilburg 1988 (+3−3=8) and sixth at Belgrade 1989 (+2−2=7). In 1987 he finished equal first at the Interzonal tournament in Szirák, Hungary and qualified for the World Championship Candidates Tournament in 1988. He defeated Viktor Korchnoi but lost to 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. He won the Nordic Chess Championship in 1997 and 2017. By winning this latter tournament in 2017 (edging out Nils Grandelius on tiebreak score) Jóhann qualified to play in the FIDE World Cup 2017. He was eliminated in the first round by David Navara.
He has played for Iceland in the Chess Olympiad, World Team Chess Championship, European Team Chess Championship, World Senior Team Championships, World U26 Team Championship, World U16 Team Championship, 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.