The 2026 FIDE World Championship is just weeks away, so we rounded up a favorite guest to help preview it. GM Jan Gustafsson is a renowned opening theoretician, trainer, and Chessable author who served on Magnus Carlsen's World Championship preparation teams. Jan joined me to give his somewhat surprising assessment of the upcoming title match between GM Javokhir Sindarov and GM D Gukesh. We discuss how opening preparation has evolved, why World Championship matches tend to produce more draws than expected, and how Jan's match assessment compares with betting markets and Elo-based models.
Jan has been busy, so we also discussed his role as captain of the 2026 German Olympiad team, which earned an outstanding third-place finish. Jan also previews his newest Chessable course, which draws on the opening repertoire of Germany's biggest chess star.
Lastly, we touched on the Esports World Cup and caught up on books, TV shows, and Jan's plans for the rest of 2026.
Thanks to our sponsor Claude ai. Check it out at
Mentioned in the podcast:
Ben’s FIDE World Championship Forecasting Model (Built with Claude)
https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/2026wcmodel
Donchenko-Gukesh game
https://www.chess.com/events/2026-fide-chess-olympiad-open/09/Donchenko_Alexander-Gukesh_D
Vokhidov-Svane
https://www.chess.com/events/2026-fide-chess-olympiad-open/08/Vokhidov_Shamsiddin-Svane_Rasmus
FM Donny Ariel’s YOUTUBE Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@DonnyArielChess
Pop Culture Recs:
Jan- The Invite (Film), The Knick (Show), Mobland (show) , Industry (Show), Norm McDonald YouTube Clips
Ben- How to Get Rich in American History (book), The Lowdown (Show), Lupin (show)
Jan’s Chessable courses-
https://www.chessable.com/author/JanGustafsson/
Ben’s Chessable course-
https://www.chessable.com/author/Ben.Johnson/
Photo in thumbnail via Schachbund’s Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DdlJIYxubCc/?hl=en