Personally I find books to be much better medium than anything else really. Videos are nice for a quick intro, but the line between entertainment and educational value is very blurry and just passive listening doesn't get you anywhere.
Depending on the book, but many have authors recommendation on how to tackle them; i.e. by sitting down with the book, in front of a physical board and following the variations, moving the pieces and forcing yourself to visualise the short side variations.
I've gotten more value out of approaching it like that, than from anything else, really.
@SCHUSCHKR0ETE said in #20:
> Maybe there is a trend towards other resources that show convincing results as well
Chessable courses and Youtube videos show convincing results insofar as the authors can make a nice extra income with them. Otherwise, they are inferior forms of learning.
Frankly, books are impossibly heavy to digest- putting me to sleep- even the very well written ones- there is something narcoleptic about reading algebraic notation. Videos are far more digestible. My calculation and visualisation is not nearly good enough to be able to stay with the author in a book, whereas on Youtube I practice the moves over and over again on a board- learning by doing.
Yeah... but there fun
@enobarbus13 said in #23:
> Frankly, books are impossibly heavy to digest- putting me to sleep- even the very well written ones- there is something narcoleptic about reading algebraic notation. Videos are far more digestible. My calculation and visualisation is not nearly good enough to be able to stay with the author in a book, whereas on Youtube I practice the moves over and over again on a board- learning by doing.
You can do the same exact thing with a book; practice the moves over and over again on a board.
Totally agree with this. The first thing I tried to learn chess was buying a book. Did all the moves but had no idea what I was doing.
I like the studies here. Especially the interactive ones with good explanation.
And I like the youtube video's of
@wgraif . His enthousiasm and the way he explains his thinking helped me raising my rating quite a bit. As a mediocre chess player I think (and this goes for most skills) the social element is key for improvement. And YT video's are a bit like that.
As a good runner I need to talk with fellow runners. See them at competition and so on. After weeks of solitary training (months even) I'm most motivated after a race.
Yes, sure! Now you have computers and engines. Who needs books nowadays? That ́s why there is not comparison between Kasparov vs Carlsen.
It depends. I remember several good books from which I learned quite a lot. There was for example
a book by Max Euwe (covering strategy/planning, the queens gambit and other stuff) which I found very helpful.
Also a book by Sergiu Samarian (with a lot of exercises!), 'systematical chess training'. I'm still recommending that one.
Other books were maybe not that helpful but still worth reading (f.ex. a book by Polugajevsky). This is the
type 'entertaining books'.
Still other ones were boring, f.ex. a book by Gelfand with hundreds of highly complex and
long variations with almost no text. Such kind of commented games is not very helpful for me.
Of course, progress does not come by reading alone, you have to understand the topics, to apply them in your own
games and to analyze a lot. But sometimes a well chosen book or a well chosen video might help you - but the thinking you
have to do yourself.
@Fruloops said in #25:
> You can do the same exact thing with a book; practice the moves over and over again on a board.
Indeed so, if you play the moves on a board you have to follow algebraic notation- in a video you merely copy whats happening on ghe board. Its the notation that puts me to sleep, even with a board.
