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

I learned that (white) f4 wants to play f5. I had thought that that was wrong as it distracts from the center. I learned that from the OP's Ben Finegold site.

I also watched Ben's "accidental sacrifice" on youtube. Ben had the honesty to admit that his brilliancy was because he made what he thought were blunders. Humble honesty!

However, I still think that insulting kids ( its ok to insult us adults, we are, or at least should be,strong enough) is very wrong!

It must have been tough without a dad or mom. However, this is not a contest about whose childhood was worse. * I still believe that insulting kids is wrong,even if some have a sophisticated sense of humor.

* "Normal people" are those you do not know very well. In other words, no one had a childhood without abuse. Perhaps not as bad as your childhood. But still you should not just assume that no one has suffered as much as you. I can tell stories about my childhood,but I choose not too and also not use those stories to win a silly chess.com debate.

OK, your "argument " was based on other people's suffering. Either way your "argument" is invalid.

More proof there must be something wrong with me.  He's one of my favorite video authors. 

He's kinda cute.

okayyyy...

I don't think he's a jerk.

Jerking is good for losing weight.

I remember being at one of my first tournaments ever, either '85 or'86. Was about a 1200 player back then. My coach and I were going over a game I had just played. Meanwhile, Ben Finegold is sitting there, laughing his ass off at my play. Heckling me. "Oh no, couldn't play this. That woulda won too fast!" Stuff like that.

Coulda punched him.

You gotta have a laugh man!

Chess rage is unheard of.

Oh God, just watched one of his videos.  Direct quote "A GM once told me never trade pieces."  That was the end of his sentence.  He insisted that every single queen's gambit player's idea with 2.c4 was that after 2...dxc4 3.e4 like it was the main main mainline.  He says both e3 and e6 were bad in the QGD where they were both good and outwardly critized 2...e6 but makes no comment about 2.Nf6.

How did they let him back in that place?

Wow.  Mike Kummer is really friggin' bad.  Backyard Prof bad.

I like Ben Finegold's videos and watch both his St.Louis Club videos and also his youtube channel.

FInegold makes fun of himself too if you notice. His teaching style is humbling, and he always reminds me that chess isn't about ego, it's about the journey of improvement and having fun. I enjoy his humor and often laigh out loud at what he says, and I'm not someone who does that very often.

I also like Mike Kummer, he's not master level but I still learn from his videos and find him amusing.

Damn loosen up you guys, Finegold is awesome and his humour will grow on you if you don't get it, he is also sincere, self-deprecating & obviously tongue in cheek.   Look up the definition of humour, oh wait if you have to explain a joke it kills it...   Yasser to me is boring as hell, but that's just my preference, he is popular and knowledgeable so good luck to him, man live and let live, not everyone likes watching the same things.

It's when you take the derivative of acceleration in arithmetic.

Yeah, Akobian is a good teacher. Finegold is entertainment.

In defense of entertaining teachers, some of the best, most loved teachers I know are entertainers. In some ways, it's a matter of style.

Finegold does entertain, but he doesn't always keep the students' needs in mind. There's a line that good teachers don't cross. They don't put entertainment ahead of learning. There's an art to keeping students engaged in learning. That's the real problem. Entertainment is a fine tool if it has a deeper purpose. 

Lack's confidence? Not sure. He's a GM lecturing amateurs on the lower rated side. With no prep he could probably take a blitz game I played and still make it instructional.

Oh, lack self confidence as a person maybe. Lacks confidence in the material I'm not so sure. I mean sometimes he's going over classic games and making the usual remarks. Not sure how he could lack confidence on that front.

I mean, I think he just looks down on his audience most of the time. Sometimes he'll ask for a move and the audience gives TERRIBLE suggestions... I think he's just really bored.

They could easily have people rated 2000 doing those lectures. GMs is huge overkill but the club has the money to do it... this is my opinion on it anyway.

If you're worried about a joker's confidence level, laugh at his jokes. That's how that works. IMO Finegold is an excellent teacher and funny. I like Seirawan too and many of the others but not all, some are too dry and don't explain well. That club does feature one bad teacher at the risk of going off topic.

LOL! THAT WAS FUNNY!

I wonder how much they drunk that night to do that. :) Anyway, thanks for sharing, much appreciated! :)