Nobody has yet become a Grandmaster by watching chess videos... True or False?

Exactly that is the main problem.Confused ignorants like you can convince other confused ignorants.You don't even know the basics but you think you can have an opinion.It's like not knowing driving and believe that you can train drivers, is it possible?

How do I know what other people use apart from myself? It's helped me improve, I doubt most people get to my level of play in a couple of months with books. But that's only ever anecdotal evidence which is useless.

You realise I'm a beginner? I would wager I'm better than you were after the same length of time.

In fact, by you saying videos are useless, you're actually invalidating your own 'position of authority' argument, seeing as grandmasters make videos and obviously think they are useful.

False! I'm a beginer to intermediate and I find practice and book study are more beneficial than watching videos. Therefore I find it very hard to believe that one could become a GM by watching videos alone, absurd even, think about it!!

Without disrespect, no need to be a genius to have an opinion though I got your point. An insulting talk does not make an argument more valid.

True is the answer. Easier? Understand now?????

You are a member of chess.com  for more than 18 months, God knows how many years you play chess  and you are at 1582.

I helped a friend and from 900 got a 1650+ in just six months and he plays even better( and I am not even teacher).

You have to rethink how much the Videos help you or just waisting your time.Because 1550+ in 18 months is actually not help at all.

Take a look at when I played my first game. I barely did anything on here 18 months ago, I barely have 2 months of study, did almost nothing before that. I'll help you out.

All I said is your 'learn in 15 minutes what a video would teach in an hour' is plainly nonsense, an arbitrary figure, and that all videos are different, and all people learn differently.

I hate these discussions, why do you have to choose one of these? I use both videos and books. I don't have a friend/coach who can train me, but these resources are enough for me and I'd never think of giving up one of them; studying would start to become boring.

It is not an insult to be an ignorant beginner.We all have been there.The problem is when one doesn't know it and  thinks he is better than that.He is a problem to himself and to others.Put someone that doesn't know driving to teach driving.What do you get?Deaths(in chess you get even more confused beginners, most of them never really learn what they must do).

Is it an insult to call him ignorant  and tell him to wait until he first learn? Or the truth?

I'm not ignorant and I'm not teaching beginners, simply stating facts.

Fact 1. Your figure is arbitrary, unless you have evidence of this 15 minutes vs 1 hour statement?

Fact 2. People learn differently.

The ignorance is in your statements, not mine.

What I call 'insulting' is more the way you speak than the words you choose:

A little bit overkill isn't it?

Anyway, I got you; someone who doesn't know driving should not teach it to someone else, no argument about that and similar stuff.

Nope. Just rude, very rude and not useful at all, if your goal was to help.

I get that, but it's an irrelevant point seeing as I wasn't teaching chess, just disagreeing with his statements.

I must admit I'm really skeptical about that video stuff, perhaps because my goals can't be achieve by that kind of training. At some point, those videos will become pointless for you. I guess I just forgot how much it was painful in my beginning to find a right plan. Now I'm not a beginner anymore, I (may be) bash too easily on these method in which I don't trust.

It depends what you're learning, but to teach certain concepts they can be helpful. As can a teacher, as can a book. There's no single correct way, you'll need to play some chess too.

Use all learning outlets, espeically playing people that are better than you. Learn from your mistakes.

I just acknowledge the veracity of a logical proposition, whether the proposition was based on a true fact or not does not alter the logic of the proposition.

Nowhere I suggest it would mean you was effectively teaching chess.

My point was to retain his attention on the way he was speaking, not to test the veracity of his sources.

not sure whether one can be a GM or not by watching chess videos, but i for sure have learnt a lot from the videos in chess.com, i was out of chess for close to 8 years and i had an extremely bad form....my schedule also doesnt even allow me to devote time for serious chess study....the videos really helped me to perform well in a tournament which i played after a gap of 8 close to years...i scored 7.5 out of 10 rounds and increased my Fide ratings by 124 points....

before i sign off let me ask you all a question, if you think chess videos dont work then why do you think that coaching camps are good source of learning chess...well in both cases you are taught similar concepts....the role of the videos is to trigger ur brain to think in a different ways and i think chess.com is doing a good job in that regard....

Players upto 2200 level have lots to learn from these videos, mark my words....

you can't just watch videos, you also have to play games and compete.

Yes i can understand Michael-G's frustration at Scottrf's statements (youthful-arrogance perhaps but misguided). 

The assessment of a complex-chess position requires far more than simple learning-by-rote from books or videos (though these will do no harm)

Unlikely you will become GM this way as further & less easily-defined skills are required. Few people possess enough of these to make GM.

One video that '' may '' be worth watching again is this cameo-portrait of our current top-rated human-being in the World at chess :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_v9mTfhC8

What struck me when watching that was his comment that he '' Just looks at the board & he knows what to move ''. This cannot be learned from a video or book.