Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Hamburg, Germany
About Matthias Wahls
- Matthias Wahls (born January 25, 1968) is a German chess grandmaster and poker player. Wahls had his roots in chess SK Union Eimsbuettel, a chess club in Hamburg.
- Beginning in 1985, he played for Hamburger SK in the first division, the same year he became German youth champion.
- In 1988 he was appointed by the FIDE International Master to master, and a year later to grandmaster. In the 1990s, Wahls was among the strongest of German chess players.
- He represented Germany in the 1990 and 1992 Chess Olympiads, and in 1996 and 1997 German championships.
- In 1998, Wahls qualified for the FIDE World Chess Championship, which was held a year later in Las Vegas.
- There, he defeated Altin Cela of Albania in the first round by 1½ – ½, but fell in the second round by 0 – 2 to Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk. In the second half of the 1990s, Wahls began conducting seminars on chess issues, especially openings, and reduced his tournament activities.
- He also published a book in 1997 on the opening Scandinavian Defense (ISBN 3-932861-00-0), and in 2005 a multimedia course, The Best Opening Traps (ISBN 3-937549-09-9). Since July 2006, Wahls' Elo rating has remained unchanged at 2543, as he has played no Elo-eligible matches. Wahls has recently focused on the game of poker.
- In 2007, he founded the world's largest poker school, PokerStrategy.com, with Dominik Kofert.
- The school has over 5.5 million members (as of 2013), and is based in Gibraltar.
- Wahls intended it to spread the poker game Texas Hold 'em in Germany.
- After working with the school for several years, it was reported in November 2011 that Wahl had relocated to southern Spain "for a financially successful excursion into the world of poker".
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