Is Ben Finegold as big a jerk as he seems in his videos?

Not sure about the jerk part but he is big.

Dearest Ben, I was the guy that reported on your sandals, corduroys and tattered shirt...

Sorry if that was not your attire, but it was my recollection and reflected your overall presentation. Also, apologies to referring to your wife as a chess groupie - although I am sure your chess skills are part of her attraction to you - and we definitely need more women in chess. 

To me, you do come across as a bit of a bully on your videos - but beauty and bully is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.   To each his own...

To be sure, you were very decent to respond to this thread.   

He's from Detroit...nuff said. 

has anyone actually seen or heard an audience member?

He's a sad person. Comes home and eats a block of cheese listening to jewel.

I used to listen to Jewel, until I found out she was Ricky Martin as well........

Now all I need is for William Hung to do a Jewel cover ...

Ben is absolutely amazing! first i also thought he an a... but man it takes me so much time watching his videos because i lough so much that i need to pause the video the whole time

Fun fact: if you google 'Ben Finegold' this thread is the second result that comes up.

Google doesn't give the same results to everyone for identical search parameters, because how each one uses the Internet influences the results. For example, this thread appeared as the 3rd result to me. For someone who never clicked on this thread, it would be even further down the list

I'm not surprised.

Arjun got that summer internship with Google's SEO co-op program last year.

Wow really? You learn something new every day, thanks.

Oh, it would be such a shame if some people here missed out on what a wonderful chess lecturer Ben really is. I could list many great qualities, but instead I will point out a unique one -- Ben's lectures, especially if you watch enough of them, really bring to light just how funny chess actually is. If chess is a metaphor for our life struggles with others -- and ourselves! -- then we can see in it our countless blunders, our unrelenting blindness to things that are right in front of our faces, and our best laid plans turned to folly. If chess is a metaphor for life, then it affords us ever new opportunities to laugh at ourselves, and THAT is a great ability to acquire. Ben is an incredibly lovable fellow, he obviously has great affection for his opponents and his audience (just think of his rapport with Arjun and "Grand Master" Ken West), and he does a masterful job of teaching very subtle but important ideas, all wrapped up in a blizzard of hilarious stream of consciousness. 

If you doubt me, just look at the absolutely overwhelming affection for Ben in the YouTube comments.

Chess is such a beautiful game, and I am forever indebted to Ben for making it a million times better in that now I always have a good laugh at every game I play.

I wish this thread could be terminated

xyzct, your comment is awesomely accurate.

Indeed, I don't like Finegold that much for this reason. I know he does it jokingly and doesn't really mean what he says, but in my eyes negative humor is only funny when it is episodic, not when it is the only kind of humor a person employs.

To be honest though, he seems friendlier than Eric Hansen. That guy just has some anger management issues, and I can never watch his videos for more than 5 minutes before having had enough.

The best proof that Ben is not a jerk is the continued existence of this thread. He is not offended and just thinks that it's funny. Different strokes for different folks. 

Thanks Yoyopuppy :-)

White opens with e4 ... and black resigns. And now we'll move on to the next game.

~Ben Finegold

I google searched Ben Finegold and that brought me to this thread that I had never seen.... It was the second search result, lol