A Guide to Using NM Heisman's Award-Winning Chess Improvement Video Channel

My Youtube Channel - Instructive Videos for all levels.

Originally I was making videos for the Internet Chess Club (ICC). I made about 400 but the access was restricted. Similarly, my award winning "Novice Nook" columns, originally free at Chess Cafe, are now behind a paywall.

I also had done a "chess instruction" TV show here on Chess.com called "Q&A with Coach Heisman" and initially Chess.com had stored my old shows for viewing and I had linked them through my website, but then they deleted many of the archived shows, so last I checked, only a few were still accessible.

After I stopped making ICC videos, I decided to reach a much larger audience through Youtube, so I created a channel for instructive chess videos a few years ago. As of today, my Youtube channel contains over 350 videos covering on all aspects of chess improvement. Most videos run about 25-30 minutes, long enough to cover a subject in detail but short enough to be consumed in one sitting.

One of my videos, The Ways to Make Better Moves, won the 2021 award for "Best Video Instruction" from the Chess Journalists of America. In 2022 Improve Your Chess: Common Thought Process Errors won Honorable Mention in Best Instruction (online). In 2023 Chess: A Thought Process Overview also won "Best Video Instruction" (online)!

In order to best help viewers find the appropriate videos, I created several "Playlists" to categorize the videos:

• Basic Material
• Openings
• Endgames
• Chess Strategy
• Chess Thought Process
• Master Games (mine, GMs, etc)
• Safety and Tactics
• Amateur Games (Rated Under 2200; learn from their instructive mistakes)
• Verbalized Games (games where I "think out loud" in real time vs mid-level engine)
• Podcast-type Instruction (videos without a lot of board action)

Using these playlists, a viewer can "pick and choose" what subjects interest him or her the most. You can also search through my channel for specific key words of interest like Ruy Lopez, zugzwang, or Lucena.

I am happy to say that these videos not only cover some common ground such as popular openings, basic endgames, and a variety of safety issues, but also some subjects that I specialize in, such as thought process (and thought process mistakes), time management, and a variety of "Dan-special" topics.  These latter include important aspects like the common tactic Counting, Attack with Something Worth Less (AWL), Hope Chess, Board Vision, and Going to Sleep in the Endgame. I also play games "out loud" vs a mid-level engine so you can follow the thought process of a master level player.

Two of my most popular videos in 2022 were Improve by Playing "What If?" with the Engine and The Geometry of Chess Tacics.

I think my Youtube chess instruction channel augments many of the fine videos you can find here on Chess.com, so bookmark it (or subscribe - currently over 7,000 subscribers!) to add to your chess learning arsenal!

Bonus: In 2021 the Chess Journalists of Americal also voted my "Chess Tip of the Day" Twitter feed as the Top Twitter Feed. Access not only the Chess Tip of the Day, but up to 4,000 prior tips since ~2011. I have over 6,000 followers - join in the fun . In April 2024 NM Laura Smith and I released a Chessable course introducing the Counting tactic (do any capturing sequences win material?).