FM Jari Järvenpää

I am Jari Järvenpää, 43 years old chess enthusiastic from Tampere, Finland. I started chess when I was 10. As young age I already studied openings and my own games without an engine.

I have Masters of Arts degree (philosophy) from the university of Tampere. Minor subjects are psychology and statistics. I have done voluntary work 2 years with immigrants and also helped 3 years senior in Red Cross. I like art a lot, writing poems and also running and movies. I am nice and good-hearted person.

I have loved this game ever since I was a boy. I played my first tournament when I was 15. Most of my achievements on playing arenas have been quite late because I am self-taught player and I was only 1900 rated when I was 18 on the year 1999. I got my National master title 2009 and FM title 2013. Becoming better player is still possible even on my age.

I have played many times on international events. In Heart of Finland 2011 I got my first good achievement winning all first 6 games. One IM and 3 GMs had to resign, highest rated was Sulskis Sarunas, rated 2591. Then I lost two remaining games and on the last round I had to face GM Kanep Meelis. After 8 games I already had the IM-norm, which decreased my motivation efficiently realize the attack against GM Kanep and got a draw. It was fine result as well, but with 7 points I would have got the GM-norm.

On 2015 I finally had possibility to play European Club Cup in Skopje, North Macedonia. I had the time of my life enjoying the atmosphere. I used my home preparations from Tampere on my last game against finnish superb GM Tomi Nybäck who was around 2600 rated. I managed to win the game and brought 2nd IM-norm as a souvenier. All this travelling to hundreds of kilometres to play against countryman! Ever since around 2008 I have played many strong international events in 7 countries having at least 3 draws with over 2500 GMs. In my home country I have played finnish championship tournaments few times and also all the league games.

I have had four long-term students on years 2014, 2017-2019, 2021 and 2022.
My first student from ICC got his first medals when I helped him on the year 2014 and pumped up his rating. He also have had achievements after year 2016.

His achievements:
-Beating FM Järvenpää, 2016, hey that's me!
-U-18 championship, 2016: Gold medal with 7/7.
-Finnish Youth U-18+U-20 championship, 2016: Silver medal with 5,5/7 result.
-Finnish Youth U-18+U-20 championship, 2015: Bronze medal with 5,5/7 result.
-Finnish U-16 championship, 2014: Bronze medal with 5,5/7 result.

He has told about my lessons: "I was used to play very much with almost only by intuition, but in NFork's (my ICC handle) training I learned to calculate more and analyse more concrete moves than only positional factors. I got some new ideas to French defence and tried to analyse my games without a computer. Maybe the training worked quite well. My national rating increased 100 points within three months (1900 ----> 2000)."

My second student has also gained 200 rating points on the first year when we had more intensive training. All in all we have had lessons on two years on ICC. Here are his achievements:
-Finnish U-16 championship, 2020: Silver medal with 6/7 result.
-Finnish Youth U-14 championship, 2019: Silver medal with 5,5/7 result.

Third improved after my lessons and fourth long-term student improved 100 rating points in a short period.

I have had dozens of collaborations with other chess players when they have needed only short-term help on chess. On years 2011 and 2013 I taught chess in Tampereen työväenopisto, which is the adult education centre of Tampere. I have written dozens of chess article to finnish chess magazine and on year 2019 I wrote 7 pages of Caro-Kann to New in Chess Yearbook 133.

Group lessons few times in Helsinki ShakkiAreena, ChessArena as well as in Salon Shakkileiri.

Playing style analysis or analysis of games, opening preparations, chess psychology, teaching positional chess with chess principles.

I have improved a lot on rapid chess lately. With 2500 rating I am higher rated that most of the teachers with FM or IM title. With 14 euros we can play couple rapid games and I will give short insights of your play.

Individual approach. Often it is easy to start with playing style analysis of student to find out on what areas you should work on. This means at least 1 hour analysis of your games.

Here some other methods:
-Development of pieces and opening phase
-Building up opening repertoire that suits you
-Positional chess. I have very good material that student have liked!
-Endgames

We can also play practice games (10 5 or longer) where I give hints spontaneously. You get valuable hints on very fair fee!

I study chess also myself which helps me to be better teacher.