Top 5 Youtube Chess Channels
Hi, everyone. To you Americans, I hope your Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend was/is going awesome! 
This post will be a bit unusual to my writing style -- there are many chess videos on the internet, as posting videos are free for anyone to do! Although, it can be difficult to find the right channels and videos worth your time. Therefore, I present to you the top five Youtube channels for chess content worth your watch.
Now some disclaimers, this is obviously my opinion only. Am I claiming that this list is accurate and I have not left out any channels worth mentioning? Absolutely not! In fact, I would love to hear your feedback on channels I may have left out, maybe it will give me some fresh content to watch! 
How did I judge these video authors? The main qualities I was looking for were education, engagement, and quality. To any aspiring Youtubers out there, I believe all three of these factors are very important for your channel to thrive. Anyway, we will actually start with a few honorable mentions before we dive into the actual top 5.
Honorable Mention: Agadmator
Many of you are familiar, Agadmator's channel is among the highest quality chess videos, and clearly very popular, boasting half a million subscribers! Why is Agadmator not quite in the top 5 in my opinion? I feel that Agadmator lacks that engaging enthusiasm other content creators have, and the videos in themselves won't help you improve at chess (though not a lot of videos will period). Though, I still commend him for the hard work he has put in and the high quality videos he produces!
Honorable Mention: Kostya Kavutskyi
Those of you who are keen on improving at chess should totally follow IM Kostya Kavutskyi. He's a very proficient chess entrepreneur, who takes time to both help others improve (with his instructive videos), and to try and improve his own play (aiming for the GM title). The only thing keeping him off the top 5 is that his videos tend to be lengthy, and some more lesson-oriented videos (like his series on calculation) would be great. Kostya is an awesome and very instructive content creator!
Alrighty, now we get to see who will make the ultimate top-5 list!
#5: Chess.com
Might I be stripped of Chess.com top-blogger status if I don't give the Chess.com channel a plug?! 
Well, in all seriousness, Chess.com does kindly offer free video lectures despite having premium-paid only videos available on the website. Watching Danny Rensch analyze a chess game is always a treat! It's simply a jungle of a channel to browse!
#4: St. Louis Chess Club
The St. Louis Chess Club's Youtube Channel does focus a lot on tournament coverage, though another main focus of theirs is lectures, which I love. Their lectures go from beginner to advance. You'll have to dig into the archives to find some great lectures, though they are worth your time. Learn from chess personalities like Var Akobian, Josh Fridel, Christian Chirilla, and more! Hard to beat.
#3: John Bartholomew
A childhood favorite of mine, John Bartholomew is one heck of a chess communicator, able to relate to all levels. Even though a lot of his recent videos are about him playing blitz, they still have a lot of instructive value to the player trying to improve. To his credit, John has been busy with his hot project, Chessable, though he definitely earns his place at #3 for chess video content creators.
#2: Chessnetwork
One thing I love about Chessnetwork is that he has been doing this for twelve freaking years -- his first video was posted only two years after the founding of Youtube! He clearly has the teaching experience -- the way he uses the arrows and circles to display chess ideas, writes notes, and simply verbalizes his teachings is simply spot on. Highly recommended for quality chess instruction.
#1: Sam Copeland
Yup, gotta give my man a plug here. And he only has 873 subscribers?! Let's get him to 1K!!! Anyway, what I love about him is simply his passion for teaching the game, from his emphasis on the great moves played, to the stories he tells and simply knows. And his voice is so soothing and easy to understand, in which that combined with the awesome chess instruction he gives places him at #1 on my list!
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Man, this wasn't an easy list. I feel like the top 5 could be switched any way around according to your preference, and other channels who didn't even make honorable mention could have easily been in the top 5! Though please, critique my list (in a nice way of course ), and plug some of your favorite chess channels!
