How much could a player improve just by watching agadmator videos?

There was an article written several years ago by IM Ken Smith where he recommended watching or reading through thousands of GM games really quickly to learn how to play better by "osmosis".

I don't know whether this is just some wacky idea or really has some merit. I have probably seen over a hundred GM games so far, I still don't understand many of the moves that GMs make.

Jeremy Silman claims he played through hundreds of games every few days as a teenager, and that’s how he learned patterns.

When it comes to chess improvement, playing--particularly playing slower games--is much more important that watching videos! I'm not saying you can't get some valuable information from good videos, because you certainly can. But chess is not primarily about who knows the most, it's about who plays the best! At the board, you make your own decisions and plans, you do your own calculating, you remain tough-minded and determined, even when things are going badly. You won't learn these skills from a video.  You learn them by playing, and then analyzing your own games.

What proportion did Silman spend replaying GM games vs playing real games?

I don’t know. He wrote about his process in an article on the site 5-10 years ago.

I don't mean to be too disrespectful to agadmator; making a popular youTube channel takes hard work and creativity.

But I remain surprised that his channel is among the most popular of all chess channels. He rifles through games giving only the most superficial analysis, and without much humor either.

In terms of analysis, ChessNetwork and GothamChess are far superior. Even chessbrah, which is more of a humor / fun chess channel that only streams games, never does analysis of other players' games, is probably better for studying things like mating patterns.

All that being said, none of it comes for free.
I enjoy watching all these channels, but just passively watching is for entertainment; it's a very slow way to improve one's game. If you want to learn from these videos, then you need to go through the position on your own board. Personally I find that named concepts (e.g. "minority attack") seem to sit better in my mind, so I try to name ideas for those that don't already have one.

You cannot learn to play chess by watching videos just like you cannot learn to drive a car, play golf, swim, play football... by watching videos. You have to play and analyse.

Exactly!

Hello Everyone!

Hello Mr Mama

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Hello Mr Haller

Actually playing games I think you’d get allot better, not really watching videos. It’s the experience and learning from mistakes you’d miss out on.

I can't learn punching strong by simply watching Mike Tyson.

I recommend investing time in some quality chess books, instead.

YouTube videos are far better than nothing. And they definitely bring you some improvement, up to a point.

But if you're truly serious about learning the game, and maximizing your potential, books are the superior choice.

There is a good chance that a steady diet of agadmator videos could retard your progress.

What makes a book a superior choice to a video course? There are some books that have been made into online training courses for example.

Books have a lot more space to dive deep, and to explain things in greater depth, which can lead to greater understanding.

A typical video course is only a few hours long, at most.

A book, on the other hand, can contain months worth of learning material, if the reader moves through the text properly.

Again, though, a lot depends on what you're aiming for. If you're only looking for moderate or casual improvement, then video lessons will certainly do the job.

But if you're aiming for serious improvement, then quality books will take you much farther.

What takes twenty minutes on video can be read in a book in five, and yet it can take years to get through a chess book.

It does take years to get through some chess books. For example Polgar's 5334 puzzle book takes over a year even if you do 10 every day.

When it comes to showing chess moves though, you can show a game pretty efficiently on video. We use chess notation in books because we don't have the luxury of video.