FM Ingvar Johannesson

I am a FIDE Master from Iceland and also a licensed FIDE Trainer having gone through two FIDE Trainer courses, one with GM Efstratios Grivas in Norway 2014 and parts of another by GM Helgi Olafsson in Iceland. I live in the suburbs of Reykjavik Iceland and aside from playing chess I enjoy sports and I referee basketball games during the winter. I have plenty of content online having posted videos on Chessvideos.tv, Chess.com and on my YouTube channel.

I very much enjoy the game of chess and I think I know about improvement. I quit playing (big mistake!) more or less around the age of 17 but returned in 2000 at the age of 23 as a 1900 player. My first tournament didn't go too great but after intense study I made a big leap from 1900 to 2200 and then gradually to FM level. I have two IM norms and my highest live rating was 2398,2, painfully short of the 2400 I need for the IM title ;-) I am currenty (sept '16) rated 2367.

My best results include 3rd place in the Icelandic Championship, Multiple wins in the Icelandic team championship, usually with a very good individual score and I once came 2nd in a strong Icelandic Blitz Championship.

I have taught plenty of individuals at various levels. Recently I have had seminars for intermediate players which received good feedback. As a coach I have gone with the Icelandic National Team to ETC in Gothenburg 2005, Women's Team in Tromso Olympiad 2014 and again men's team in ETC in Reykjavik 2015 and Baku Olympiad 2016.

When teaching individuals I like to add to their pattern recognition both by showing patterns and trying to analyze their games and point them to patterns that they can learn from their games.

I have been commentator for the Reykjavik Open for several years now where I have been joined by several nice people such as IM Bjorn Thorfinnsson, GM Simon Williams, WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni and FM Manuel Weeks.

In chess I consider my strengths to be mostly positional as I think of myself as more of a small-edge type of player. Generally I don't play very sharp stuff or calculate much. These translate obviously into the teaching.

Depending on the student needs but mostly I like to teach people that are playing tournaments so we can look at meaningful games and learn from them. In teaching or reviewing openings I am more interested in learning the patterns associated with the opening rather than concrete lines.