Did players used to read books to get better
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Or has it always been YouTube?
Books > videos
https://rafaelleitao.com/chess-books-grandmaster/
Mar 5, 2024
0
#3
We don't have YouTube and Chessbase last century. Books still have followers and dozens of books are printed or sold in digital form every year.
Mar 5, 2024
0
#4
a : I think it's a bit like a language to a certain level i.e that it is above all an intensive practice.
1 : Chess Youtube is free, we don't lose anything.
Now the problem is we also have to develop a certain critical mind because there may be Youtubers just looking to make money through the number of views etc. so to increase the number of views a YouTuber can use "troll strategies" (saying questionable things subject to controversy to create buzz).
2 : Chess book is not free, we lose something (so we have to choose intelligently in relation to our interests and what we want).
Now the problem is if we read the chess book too quickly without taking the time to think it's like seeing an engine analysis (it's almost useless). The other problem is that since there is a notion of work, we can have a chess book and never really read it in the end.
b : Like with languages it is not because for example we buy a good book related to the Spanish language that once read we know how to speak Spanish like a Spaniard knows how to speak.
On chess.com there is a lot of advice for a Silman's book but the noobs who read it didn't immediately become gosus after reading it.
Magnus Carlsen (the strongest player of all time) became a Grandmaster before YouTube even existed, so ... obviously books were pivotal to his learning.
