A person's chess ability doesn't always have a mutual relationship or connection to their teaching ability. Thus, just because a player holds the GM title doesn't mean they will be a better teacher than an IM, NM, or even an Expert.
I learned a lot watching Kingscrusher and Chessexplained's videos over the past couple of years. In fact, I attribute my gain in strength (from a B player to an A player) is a direct result of watching their videos.
If you would rather spend money and purchase DVDs from GMs, that's certainly your perogative. It won't necessarily be money well spent, however.
Would you recommend Kingscrusher as somone to learn chess from?
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Kingscrusher is lucid, informative, entertaining and there doesn't appear to be an ounce of pomposity in him. His fifteen minute vids are very instructive, his five-minute blitzes are a helluva lot of fun to watch. I'd recommend him without hesitation.
people watch or listen to what they like.
i watch [Do not advertise other chess sites - Mod.] videos sometimes (especially Jan's and Vallejo Pons stuff [I understand Spanish and he is an excellent commentator and I will meet him at MC this year :D]), listen to chess.com videos occasionally, youtube channels of chessexplained (Christof Sielecki), John Bartholomew, and Greg Shahade (Greg mostly for entertainment value rather than chess content --- although he has some of the same repertoire as me so i definitely get some value there). I liked the channel of squarology and David Pruess too, but they are mostly inactive. Curiously all IMs I've mentioned above except the chess24 guys (GMs). And I've played them all online except for Vallejo.
content should be pleasant and instructive to be engaging for me.
Who would be a better way to learn highschool physics from: a highschool teacher who completed a masters and loves to teach highschool physics enthusiastically, or a theoretical physcist researcher on the cutting edge of research doing a bit of highschool instruction as a way to prop up his/her income? I think the answer is pretty obvious.
I love Kingscrusher's videos and I've certainly gotten a lot out of them.
He moves pretty fast at times, so maybe not best for a total beginner, but he provides excellent analysis and has an infectious passion for the game. He's also given pretty comprehensive coverage to the various periods and heroes of chess. Whether he's the very best chess instructor, I don't know, but I think one could do a lot worse.
I've seen some of Kingcrusher's videos. They are clear and understandable and an intermediate player would benefit from watching them. A lot depends on you, your level of play and the amount of effort you make to understand what he is saying. The same is true for the gms who make dvds and charge hundreds of dollars for them. Personally I prefer Dan Heisman's videos on [Do not advertise other chess sites - Mod.], my game has improved since I started to watch them but there is a small membership fee to watch. If you are unable to pay this fee you might prefer to watch the free YouTube vids and certainly Kingcrusher's videos are among the best of the freebees.
Optimissed wrote:
He's FIDE 2230 and last year he was 2310 FIDE. That is the standard of a county player or, say, the strongest player in a reaasonably strong club.
Well, that seems strong. But for all we know he could be playing against kids rated much weaker than him.
I am not saying that he is a weak player or that he is a strong player, we have very little information about this. I watch his videos myself (mostly his blitz ones) but sometimes I feel that he does not play at a Candidate-Master level, in fact he sometimes plays like a total beginner. Sometimes he plays great, specially against strong opposition (IMs, FMs, and even GMs)
His videos are also enterteining. If you want a pure learning experience, maybe better some specific dvds. But his videos always teach something and are fun to watch.
Optimissed wrote:
He's a good guy, I like him and was a member of his site for a while. Think he's on my FB friends list. He's an excellent chess player with many good opinions. I once had an argument with him over the best way for white to play in the classical K.I.D. My idea was that white opens the c-file as soon as possible and gets most of the pieces off ... and that targets will naturally arise. It takes black about 5 moves to reroute his bad fianchettoed bishop. His idea was that you only open the c-file when white has a target to attack. He swore he was right but the problem is that if black can capture on d6 with his bishop, after playing Rf7 and Bf8, which is totally standard, then black's bishop is now OK. He insisted he was right and I know he wasn't. We all have our limitations ... I was a much stronger 3-day player than him, he was a much stronger blitz player than me. He has a lot of good ideas, and we can all benefit from them.
My point exactly, he was wrong and you were right. For all many of his viewers know he could be playing erratic chess 70% of the time in his youtube videos and we are learning from it. When you learn from titled players this is not the case.
Am I the only one who finds kingscrusher rather superficial and engine addicted?
MrEdCollins wrote:
A person's chess ability doesn't always have a mutual relationship or connection to their teaching ability. Thus, just because a player holds the GM title doesn't mean they will be a better teacher than an IM, NM, or even an Expert.
I learned a lot watching Kingscrusher and Chessexplained's videos over the past couple of years. In fact, I attribute my gain in strength (from a B player to an A player) is a direct result of watching their videos.
If you would rather spend money and purchase DVDs from GMs, that's certainly your perogative. It won't necessarily be money well spent, however.
I am sorry, I didn't mean to write that only GMs DVDs would be helpfull. certainly there are many FMs, IMs, and experts who are very good chess teachers. I learned chess from a national expert, he helped me a lot, but I have to recognize that I am still dragging many of the bad learned opening moves I was taugh by him. For example: I still play openings and variations that are proven to be not good at master level.
MrEdCollins wrote:
A person's chess ability doesn't always have a mutual relationship or connection to their teaching ability. Thus, just because a player holds the GM title doesn't mean they will be a better teacher than an IM, NM, or even an Expert.
I learned a lot watching Kingscrusher and Chessexplained's videos over the past couple of years. In fact, I attribute my gain in strength (from a B player to an A player) is a direct result of watching their videos.
If you would rather spend money and purchase DVDs from GMs, that's certainly your perogative. It won't necessarily be money well spent, however.
Very nice to hear from someone who has improve his game from watching kingscrusher's videos. I pointed out that this is the case with many of the viewers who watch his videos ( I guess as long as you keep away from some of his badly played bullet and blitz games) he has a lot of good material to chose from in his channel.
Kingscrusher is a know it all [Language - Mod.] who doesn't know anything about chess. So the answer is "NO."
I suppose people would be better off learning from a real master like you LOL.
Malenor wrote:
Kingscrusher is a know it all &$#^ who doesn't know anything about chess. So the answer is "NO."
I used to love KC's videos. Then I discovered that if he doesn't like a particular comment on his Youtube video he simply blocks the offender from commenting on any other video of his. I've watched some of his latest videos and he seems to me to be playing robot like style. His commentary is mediocre and he relies totally on engine analysis after the game. The comments while playing are few and far between. There are way better instructors out there, in particular chessnetwork and John Bartholomew. KC even seems tired of his own tagline (welcome to a mega exciting bla bla bla). KC also seems to not play the board, he's easily intimidated by players with higher ratings, and likes to finger his opponents to rattle off their stats.
I think Jerry (ChessNetwork) is the better teacher for new players. I learned so much from him when I first started studying chess. KIngscrusher's videos are great and interesting to watch, I just didn't learn as much from them. I love Kingscrusher's videos on Fischer leading up to WC. Overall though I think Jerry takes more time to explain why he's making certain moves in his blitz videos especially, while Kingscrusher just kind of mumbles to himself in his blitz videos. These days though I learn a lot from chess.com vids here as well as John Bartholomew on youtube. John Bartholomew's probably the best teacher for intermediate. I still never miss a ChessNetwork video though. I've never really caught on to Chessexplained.
MrEdCollins wrote:
A person's chess ability doesn't always have a mutual relationship or connection to their teaching ability. Thus, just because a player holds the GM title doesn't mean they will be a better teacher than an IM, NM, or even an Expert.
I learned a lot watching Kingscrusher and Chessexplained's videos over the past couple of years. In fact, I attribute my gain in strength (from a B player to an A player) is a direct result of watching their videos.
If you would rather spend money and purchase DVDs from GMs, that's certainly your perogative. It won't necessarily be money well spent, however.
MrEdCollins says it perfectly! A person could be an expert and be a better teacher than the world champion. If you had to be a great player to be a great teacher then sports such as football, baseball, basketball, etc., would not have had many of the hall of fame coaches that they have had over the years.
I like his approach to the game, if you are 2200 FIDE rating you might not need to see his YouTube channek but if you less than that you will learn from him. As simple as that.
I do like his videos, although I do think he over does the different continuations. It would be better if he analysed and commented on the actual game moves more. I've noticed chess.com moderators censoring member comments for mentioning other chess sites. Mentioning other chess sites is not 'advertising', it's simply mentioning a site. Looks like heavy handed censorship.
He loves chess, his chess handle in several chess websites is kingscrusher. He has a youtube channel with more than 6000 chess videos which he hosts with the same chess nickname. He lives in England and he manages a chess website. He is a chess FIDE CM, and his name is Tryfon Gavriel. Him with his youtube channel has helped thousand of chess enthusiasts to fall in love with the game and has also helped them to improve their chess skills.
The above is all I know about that guy many of us love to listen to in his Youtube channel, either while comenting on a game or while playing bullet or five minutes blitz chess. But is he really somone most of us should be learning from? To put this question in perspective I would like to talk about what we know about his chess skills.
He is FIDE CM (this and some of his OTB games which he has presented to us in his youtube channel is all we know about his OTB playing strength)
He holds blitz and bullet ratings of over 2100 in almost all websites he plays in (But can we really value this when considering learning from him or following in him for chess improvement)
Since we have a poor knowledge of his OTB strength (or not enough information on the subject) lets talk about what we have experienced from many of his bullet and blitz games which he present to us almost daily at his Youtube channel. Well he in most of his games manages to play into the middle game, what tells us that he has some control and knowledge of his opening moves, although many of us has seen him get in trouble right out of the opening in many of his games. He sometimes spends the whole game struggling with bad positions and manages to swindle games by means of tactical shots or either manages a win on time. Sometimes he plays brilliant games from start to finish which does not happens to often which he shows to us by mean of computer analizes after each game. Sometimes he was losing a piece or was in a lost position which the computer shows to us.
We appreciate kingscrusher and his videos, but wouldn't we be better off spending money in DVDs by GMs who are proven good chess players rather than trying to learn from someone like him? (I am not sure) what do you think?