10 minute talks on youtube by an FM

Hi everyone

I am FM Grant Szuveges from Australia. Please have a look at my new coaching videos - I would like to sell the rights to them to a chess business. If you know of any chess business who may buy them, please message me. They are aimed at club level players.

Cheers, Grant

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSClIVKbmGUcMqFQVICgYPuO_a7DtDkWy

Nice common sense approach to chess.  Only had time to look at one video (the English-Botvinnik c4 reply to the Sicilian) but what I saw was logical and well explained.  Love the old school 3D approach.  Refreshing change from 2D computer boards.  Except for the occasional knocked over pawn, it really went well.  Thanks, and good luck marketing yourself.

Thanks baddogno. I deliberately used the real board. I actually feel quite strongly about this: We play chess on a real board so we should study the game on a real board. Too many people who study chess on a computer screen actually make blunders when they play on a real board. Ive given at least 4 juniors that advice when they ask me "how do I stop making blunders?". All four took my advice and 3 of them stopped blundering very quickly and while the other still made some blunders, they were far less frequent.

Training in any sport is about simulating playing conditions. Footballers train on a football field, cricketers train on a cricket ground - therefore chess players should train on a chess board - even if they get their info from a computer screen.

The odd pawn getting knocked over makes it more real - I wanted it to be a bit like a cooking show - where the chef prepares a meal so people can see how its done - they often spill something and it just makes it more "feelgood".

One day I will certainly release the "bloopers reel" - these were a lot of fun to film - especially the Maroczy Bind one!

Thanks for your support and encouragement!

You already know that you're a good teacher, so you certainly don't need any encouragement from a patzer like me, but thanks anyway.  I kinda figured out that just looking at 2D screens and book diagrams wasn't best so I have a table right next to the computer with a real chess set on it.  When I'm playing correspondence chess I tend to have 6 or 8 boards scattered around the living room with various games in progress so I agree with your premise, but again thanks for sharing.  Looking forward to viewing a few more of your presentations.  It really does seem that we are living in the golden age of chess instruction.  I remember 50 years ago (before taking a long hiatus from chess) struggling with MCO variations in a usually vain attempt to learn something.  What a different world today.

Outstanding video's, even though my rating is very low, I was easily able to follow your moves and understood the techniques being discussed.  I was told early in my chess.com career, to quit setting up multiple boards and using them for my on-line games.  "Learn to use the computer boards" was the advice.  I did so, but it's good to hear baddogno's use of boards.  I don't have many opportunities to play OTB locally, but hope to enter a National Tournament in April and have been thinking I should play more on real boards.  You've just confirmed this.  Thanks again, the video's are fantastic.

I subscribed to that channel about a month back. They have a lot of very instructive content but unfortunately a very small number of views. I especially enjoyed your interview on there which, although was about junior chess, I found very applicable to my own chess as a beginner.

Regarding using a real board: I'm trying to implement that at home as much as possible. I find it so hard to see the board especially as we use fairly high tables and large boards at the club. The pieces are right in your face and it's hard to take in the whole thing at one glance.

Hi baddogno, MangoMike, CFOfdensen, ticcherr

I couldnt even imagine using MCO these days! I remember trying to use it 20 or so years ago when I first started playing competition chess! I agree too - these days chess instruction is better than ever - and players are becoming stronger than ever too - if they work at their game properly (see the interview that ticcherr mentions for what I mean by that).

I cant stress enough the importance of getting used to a real board. One of the reasons is that the board you see on a computer screen is only perhaps 15cm by 15cm and your eyes get used to looking at it - then when you get to a tournament, if you are only used to looking at an area 15cm by 15cm, you are only going to see about 9 squares (out of 64) at a time - so you will miss long-range threats (from fianchetto bishops, rooks on semi-open lines etc).

ticcherr, I dont know the exact set up at your club or your height etc, but my advice (if it is possible) is to bring a heavy cushion or something to make your seating position higher - you need to be able to see the board from above - you will miss too much without being able to see it from above. Think of the difference between watching live sport from high up in the stands where you can see the whole ground and then watching it right from ground level. I find that I get a much better idea of what is going on from high up where I can see the whole ground - its the same with chess - seeing the entire board is very important.

Incidently, notice something about this discussion - I have written for 3 paragraphs without even mentioning a single chess move! There are so many little things that people can get right before they even look at the board! In chess (like in any competetive field of endeavour), there are factors which you can control (your preparation, your first move, your diet, your transport to the venue, your attire - are you comfortable? too cold? too hot? etc etc etc) and then there are factors which you cant control (your opponents moves). If you get 100% of things you can control right, then you can start dealing with the things you cant control - ie finding the right answers to your opponents moves. You have a greater chance of doing this if you have made sure that you have scored 100% with what you can control.

Can I say that I know Grant personally and he is very much a Pre-Computer era player. What that means for his coaching style is that it's classical. It's what a lot of young players skip over today and why so many of them struggle to get over 2100 level. 

Watching these videos is a great step on the way to an all-round chess education, and a knowledge that was the foundation for players like Capablanca, Portisch, Smyslov etc etc etc.

Hi everyone

The site has now recognised my FM title. Just thought Id better put a post up about it now thats its done.

Cheers, Grant

If that is your aim, is posting them on a public website advisable?

These are a small sample trailer - I intend to make some longer (one or two hour) videos which obviously wont be available without payment.

aha! 

Hope everyone is enjoying these. I've got through about 10 of them and feel like I've learned a lot :)

Which ones have been your favourites?

What is very interesting about these is that the one which is probably the most important of them all (for a player developing their chess): the one about good and bad pieces, has only got 66 hits, yet the one about the London and Torre Attacks has got 360 hits! This suggests that people are perhaps a little bit too obsessed with openings! The minority attack and isolated pawns also have very few hits compared to some of the ones about openings. Keen to hear from people why they are interested in the opening videos primarily.

Thanks for the bump, I watched the system against Alekhine. Subscribed.

My favourite so far is a system vs systems

I can tell you why I haven't watched the minority attack and isolated pawns videos, they sound like advanced topics so I skipped them. simple as that.

Thanks for the feedback dfgh123 (and Stormstout). I actually teach things such as minority attacks and isolated pawns (in other words: pawn structure) long before I ever teach anyone the Czech Benoni/Gurganidze/Glek or most other systems Ive made lectures on! Beginners (however you define beginners) should learn about pawn structure and general rules before learning about specific openings! Those positional themed lectures are much less advanced (and much more important) than the openings! If a player understands pawn structure, it doesnt matter what opening they are playing - because pawn structure is relevant in all openings and in all chess positions!

Could be we're a little burned out on pawn structures here, at least members who have access to chess.com videos.  IM Rensch has a long running series that goes into great detail.  There is so much educational material both on site and off that it's just hard to allocate study time.  It's all well and good to say relative beginners should stay away from opening theory, but when you are playing a correspondence game, of course you're going to take a litle refresher course on whatever opening comes up.  Databases, books, videos, chess mentor, whatever: if I don't have a clue what the basic plans are for both sides, I'm in trouble.

Yeah thats a fair call. I suppose I should really decide on who a much narrower audiance should be - rather than "relative beginners". This is still a new thing for me and Im still developing it, so Im very open to and interested in this sort of feedback.