Chess training DVDs?

Anyone spent any time watching chess training DVDs? Which ones are worth the $$? Which ones aren't? Any other feedback regarding chess training DVDs?

Thanks.

Originally posted by magnublm
Anyone spent any time watching chess training DVDs? Which ones are worth the $$? Which ones aren't? Any other feedback regarding chess training DVDs?

Thanks.

I wacth all the dvd's I can get a hold of. Pro Chess is good and all the Roman DVD's. The Polgar Dvd's sound good also.

However, I borrow them from the chess club along with books, but if i had to pay money for them then i'm not sure. Check at your public library's for chess stuff. Free is always better. But ya I think books are better then DVD's.

Dvd's couple of hours then your done with it. Books you can spent tons of hours and learn a whole lot more.

Anything by Andrew Martin is good. Anything by Roman is bad. I got one by Roman just to see what he was like. He kept saying, "...And Vite is already lozt," never bothering to explain what caused the loss. I have the two Kasparov videos. Queen's Gambit Pt. 1, Najdorf Pt 1. I think he's specializing on Pt 1's. I've come to the conclusion that seeing the narrator's face is not helpful. Most of the time, considering the woeful state of grandmaster fashion and cosmetic surgery, it is positively discouraging. I borrowed one of the Polgar Winning Chess Videos. Volume 6--Bobby Fischer's Most Brilliant..." Of all the videos, this one had the best background music. I don't think grandmasters are good at representing themselves. They should hire actors to go over their games, reading from scripts. For example, Dustin Hoffman could read for Pal Benko in his video about playing Bobby Fischer. Bela Lagosi could read for Roman. Yea, I know he's dead, but he'd still do a better job. And why can't that gal Stripchenko do a video? It could just be about how to move the pieces and I'd buy it.

Originally posted by buddy2
Anything by Andrew Martin is good. Anything by Roman is bad. I got one by Roman just to see what he was like. He kept saying, "...And Vite is already lozt," never bothering to explain what caused the loss. I have the two Kasparov videos. Queen's Gambit Pt. 1, Najdorf Pt 1. I think he's specializing on Pt 1's. I've come to the conclusion that seeing the ...[text shortened]... pchenko do a video? It could just be about how to move the pieces and I'd buy it.

Roman - Think like a grandmaster. That ones great.

Maybe you got an opening dvd or Roman's. I haven't really seen those but the other ones are all good. I don't rememeber him saying and white is lost without explaining it unless if its something really simple that a 1600 could pick up on.

No, it wasn't an opening DVD. I think it was middle game. Anyway, that phrase kept being repeated over and over. Then, after the "vite is already lozt" comment, he'd spend another half hour showing how Karpov wrapped things up. The most important part he missed, or at least didn't spend much time on was WHY and HOW did black get himself in that position in the first place. I don't have the video here or i could be more explicit. Let's face it, he's not the most magnetic personality for the screen. I mentioned Andrew Martin because he's upbeat, humorous, and full of nervous energy. He's also at home in English, his native language. I'm not saying you should shun a DVD because the narrator is not a native English speaker, I just think it's one less hurdle. I keep buying the darn things, even tho fifteen minutes is my limit and i find myself dozing through the third variation of the Najdorf. It must have something to do with college. The most boring professors would go on and on, very self-important. The best instructors would always stop and say something like, "Now, what do you think?" Too bad they can't do that on DVD's.

haha ya those univ. prof's are like that too. Hm... I do recall having to think why did he says X is better but it didn't happen often. But ya, the times I didn't understand and he just moved on was frustrating.

Maybe If i actually paid money for them I would feel differently, but for now I don't care much as long as I can learn something from it.

But for sure Think Like a Grandmaster is his best one I've seen. 4 hours and 20 minutes. Great games. Very easy to follow and logical.

I bought a dvd on playing the panov attack... The layout is terrible (ugly and not intuitive), they couldn't bother to put in proper boards, they have boards with 'p' for black pawn and 'P' for white pawn etc. I havn't found videos yet, but I can't seem to stare at it for more than 10 minutes.

Forget the DVD's. I bought Informants (back when they were $5.00 apiece) and played over hundreds and hundreds of games at the rate of about 5-10 min. each. My rating went from 1600 to 2095.

Originally posted by masscat
Forget the DVD's. I bought Informants (back when they were $5.00 apiece) and played over hundreds and hundreds of games at the rate of about 5-10 min. each. My rating went from 1600 to 2095.

USCF OTB. It took about 2 years, playing in only 3-4 tmts a year. I haven't played OTB for about 15 years, so doubt it would be that high anymore. My current correspondence rating is about 2020.

Thats not bad. Nice work.

Where else do you play CC? I see you rating on here is 1500 ish.

Correspondence Chess League of America. I'm using this site to play a couple of friends.

Nice, impressive stuff 🙂 Later.