Favorite Video Sources

 Chess Videos

These are not in any order. Read the brief description to determine if you want to view the material.

Hanging Pawns on YouTube covers all facets of the game. I find his delivery pleasant and understandable. He gets right to the point. So be ready to pause and review.

Anna Rudolf is very entertaining. She branches into other areas but her chess videos are both instructive and entertaining. 

Krishna Prem for beginners openings. He has other videos but his coverage of openings is what I like. he gives the basic ideas and main moves.

agadmator's Chess Channel a lot of chess here. Coverage of events as well as study material.

Chess.com has instructional videos, news, and game reviews. Plus videos from other producers.

I'm just getting started. I'll be editing this list and adding videos. If you have a favorite please share it in the comments or send me a message.

Here are some that were shared with me on Chess.com by Dr_Risiko. I will have something to say about each one as I have time to check them out. Let me just say that as you look for help with your game or entertainment. Take a quick look at one of their videos. If you don't care for the delivery or can't understand the presenter you are not going to gain much from watching that persons videos. The good news is there are plenty out there so keep looking.

GothamChess IM Levy Rozman's Youtube channel covers a lot of topics. From exposing cheaters, to analyzing top games in the news, to playing various bots. It's entertainment with some learning thrown in.

GM Benjamin Finegold A lot of game analysis and lessons.  

chessbrah's A couple of masters with a variety of content.  

John Bartholomew Chess IM John B. Again a lot of learning here. The main thing is for you to take a look at each of these and see what you want and like.

Rosen Chess IM Eric Rosen. The formula is consistent. Lessons and analysis of top games.

Jonathan Schrantz A chess teacher out of St. Louis Missouri. Lots of lessons here.

I hope you will find two or three here that you enjoy. If you have a channel you want to share leave a comment below.

 

Chessvision.ai A New Way To Read Chess Books!

 Chessvision.ai

So with Chessvision.ai you can upload any pdf and study the diagrams in a live sidebar. As you read you can move the pieces, even analyze with Stockfish 10. Here is a short video showing how it works.

It's free to try. To join is $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year. Give it a try and come back and let me know what you think.  Click  to go  >>Chessvision.ai<<

I tried it. You do have to grant cookie permissions in your browser to get it to work. They provide instructions. Quickly in Chrome it Settings - Security and Privacy - Cookies and other site data - Sites that can always use cookies - add lichess.org.

I think it's a great idea. Let me know your thoughts on it. Oh do you need a pdf book? Try https://www.pdfdrive.com/ it looks like they provide a lot of free pdf chess books. I'd really like some feedback. Do you like what I'm doing with this blog?

Another source is https://u1lib.org/s/chess? thanks Chess Fool for the tip.

Study Chess Books On Your Computer

 Study From An ebook!

I like books I really do. However following variations and getting back to the main line leaves me scratching my head. I like to get the book in pgn and ebook formats. Then use readers to follow and study.

Here is my desk setup.

On my laptop is the Kindle reader. The book in this case is "The Modern Defence move by move".

The big second screen is showing the book in pgn format. Using SCID vs PC I can step through the moves and variations and jump back to the main line along with the flow of the book.

If you look closely you will see the text matches the book. With the advantage of comparing the book with a huge database of games, and analysis by an engine (Stockfish 14.1 in this example). I hope this gives you some ideas that will help you study chess from a book / ebook / pgn file. 

Free ebooks http://billwall.phpwebhosting.com/#PGN

Purchase ebooks with pgn files https://everymanchess.com/

The $1000 Game

I was playing the last round of the 2019 Southern Class. If I win it would put me in 1st place Class C. The prize was $1000. We both made multiple mistakes in the last moves of the game.

 

How I Installed Chess.com on Amazon Fire 7 Tablet

First you need to change a setting on the tablet. Goto Settings (swipe down from the top and tap the little gear) - Security & Privacy - and turn on "Apps from Unknown Sources".

Next you need the Android install file called an apk file. To get this you can install the Chrome browser app "APK downloader" in the Chrome webstore.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/apk%20downloader?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon&_category=extensions

It will generate a QR code you can scan into your tablet.

Or you can skip this step and scan the one below.

I used the Kindle app "QR & Barcode Scanner". By Gamma Play.com As soon as it finishes the option to open / run the file will appear for a few seconds. Click and install / open the file. If you miss it you can start over or go find the file on your device and run it from there. In the download folder. When it opens input your user name and password for Chess.com and your setup is complete.

Computer Aided Analysis

  What follows is my thoughts on this subject. I do not claim that this information is in any way perfect. I share them with the hope of being of some help to others. If you have something to share leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you. 

  Computers can out play us. It's a fact. Can they also teach us? Yes and there are a lot of programs and websites that do just that. One that comes to mind is Chessable.com. One area where computers might seem to fall short is in the area of game analysis. You put your game into an analysis engine and it spits out a very machine focused review of the game. The explanations if any make no sense to the human mind. Garry Kasparov has been at the forefront of explaining how computers and Artificial Intelligence in particular should be seen as a tool. A learning tool. Maybe a partner in the quest for knowledge.  

  

  Software designers are working on improving this communication gap. Websites like Decode Chess are making incredible strides in this area. The game report and analysis at Chess.com have undergone a design change toward this goal.  

Still for now at least I think we will have to settle for taking the computers advice and trying to make sense of it ourselves. In this article I'm going to share how I do that. I hope someone might find value in this sharing.

So let's begin. At first I thought I would try to pick one of my better games to write about, Then I realized that was wrong. I try to analyze all my games. The good, the bad, and the ugly. We especially want to analyze our losses. So here it is. My process...

First the game without annotation. I run through the game and get a quick impression of what happened. If you want to follow through my process just play through the moves below and see what thoughts come to mind as you do.

Spoiler alert here are my first thought (memories) of what transpired in this game.

1. My opponent though rated in the 1500's violated multiple opening axioms. Like don't bring out your Queen early, and Knight's on the rim are dim. Yet I lost this game.
2. My opponent developed like a new player. Looking for a "cheapo" Qf7#.
3. I must have blundered in the middle game.
4. I remember only playing on so long on the chance of a stalemate. 

Next I load the game into a database program. Here I'm using SCID vs PC. (See my 3 part article about setting up SCID vs PC) You can use about any chess database program. Chessbase of course. I have a large database of games (over 7 million) that I load in the "Tree" window. Then I start stepping through the moves. When the tree runs out of moves I mark that move as a Novelty. To see the graphics larger right click and select open in new tab. Then open that tab and look it over.

So in this game the Novelty happened at 6. ... Nge7. Is this where I blundered?

  No! A deep look by Stockfish shows that black is about equal or maybe has a very slight advantage.    

Next I start Stockfish running and slowly step through the game. Looking for the first move when the advantage shifts from Black to White. That occurs at 23. ... Nb4. Where bxc4 is better. I'm interested in fixing my game at the earliest error. So I'll return to this later. For now I continue stepping through the moves. At 25. ... Nd3 I find the big blunder. White gains a decisive advantage. No need to look further.

Next I load the game into Decode Chess.com. For my method their decode recommendations come way to late in the game. So I select my two key plays. It becomes clear to me now. The move 23. ... Nb4 allows the White Queen to take c5 and b5! On 26. Qxb5 the Knight and Bishop are attacked.

So 25. ... Nd3 appears to be the big blunder, but the snowball started rolling at 23. ... Nb4.

So I need to be more careful about letting pawns fall, and letting a Queen invade my space. I'd love to hear about your process or your opinion of mine. Soon I hope to publish a article about using a game database to find your strengths and weaknesses. Consider following this blog for future updates. Thank you.

Books + Tech = Learning Made Easier

  
A difficult aspect of studying from a book is visualizing the chess board. They have diagrams. You can set up a board to follow along. Still I get lost trying to follow variations and then get back to the original position. I've found a great study aid. Many of the classics have their games and variations stored in PGN format.

One publisher Everyman Chess includes files and apps for just this idea of following along on your computing device. Click Here to find out more about Everyman's system.

Google "chess books pgn" and you will find a lot of sources for the PGN files. The quality and completeness of these files may vary. If you find a good source please share it with me.

One good source for these and other files is Bill Wall's website. Click Here to take a look at what Bill has listed. He says it's the biggest and I believe him.

Here is a PGN download link for the following book. (Check back I may add some files from time to time.)

"The Art of Attack in Chess~Vukovic"

"My System~Nimzowitsch"

I hope you found this helpful. I would love to hear from you. Here is a game from Chess.com that shows an attack on the castled King. A subject from Art of Attack.




So far "The Art of Attack in Chess" has shown me some amazing world class attacks on the uncastled King. While I am thrilled by the beauty in these chess games. It has not given me knowledge that I can use in my games. Here is one of the example games.



Ready for chapter 3 attack on the castled King. See all this reminded me of a game I lost in 1994. I missed the win, but it was an exciting game.



Below is the same game analyzed by Stockfish 10 in the Fritz 16 interface.