Instructive Chess YouTube Playlists

2018-12-16T16:19:29Z

I rediscovered chess as an adult thanks to YouTube. Sometime in 2012 or 2013 I came across a video by Jerry of ChessNetwork playing on some website called ChessCube (watch out for the Adobe Flash Gambit!)

Since then, many more chess players have started posting content to YouTube. The games — and inner thoughts — of very strong chess players are more accessible today than ever before. You can find top GMs, including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Daniel Naroditsky, streaming themselves playing marathon blitz and bullet sessions online. But the most instructive — and, to me, the most entertaining — are those who take the time to explain their thought process as they are playing at longer time controls (and without constant chat and donation notifications).

Here are some playlists from my favorite instructive chess youtubers:

IM John Bartholomew

International Master and national treasure John Bartholomew is extraordinarily good at explaining his thoughts while he plays. His free YouTube videos are a valuable resource for those of us trying to improve. For his longer games with commentary see the Standard chess (15-minute games) playlist. He also has a very good "Climbing the Rating Ladder" series where he plays progressively better players pointing out common mistakes along the way. Embedded below is an example video from that series. Most of his recent content has appeared on Twitch, but he promises he has not forgotten about his youtube channel.

ChessNetwork

The pseudonymous Jerry of ChessNetwork is an American National Master, and the first chess YouTuber I discovered. His longer games are in his Standard Chess Games playlist.

Below is a video of Jerry analyzing Game 10 of the 2018 World Chess Championship match:

Tony Rotella

YouTube

Tony Rotella is not a titled player, but he is still much stronger than most of us (his lichess rapid rating is around 2350) and is particularly knowledgeable in opening theory (having literally written a book on the 1.e4 Sicilian Kalashnikov). Hist most instructive videos are listed in his Rapid Games playlist. Here’s an example game of Tony playing a French Advance with the black pieces:

FM Dalton Perrine

Youtube

FM Perrine is a chess coach and author of several Chessable courses. I like his Fixing My Rapid Rating videos. He also has a "climbing the rating ladder"-style playlist I have not watched yet: 800 to 2200 Blitz Challenge.

As a French player, I also like his French Defense Speedrun (600-2200) playlist. Here is the first video in that series:

Stacia Melinda

YouTube

Melinda is close to my own strength (though she was rated only 1000 a few years ago!), and we seem to make similar mistakes, so watching her games and after-game analysis can be more engaging than watching a stronger player making everything look easy. Her current project/playlist is to Climb to 1800 on chess.com. Here is a video from that series:

Other Playlists

Grand Master Simon Williams has a very daring and aggressive style which is fun to watch. He has a Longer Games playlist with longer time-control games he plays while commenting, and also a GM Analysis playlist of videos where he provides analysis of other people’s games.
IM Andras Toth has several playlists of instructional videos for the improving player including The Amateur’s Mind and Inside My Head
GM Daniel Naroditsky has several instructional SpeedRun playlists (like John Bartholomew’s "climbing the rating ladder").
The ChessDojo is a hub for chess improvers run by IM Kostya Kavutskiy, IM David Pruess, and GM Jesse Kraai (who tied for first place at the first over-the-board tournament I ever played in). They run a YouTube channel with many great playlists for improvers (as well as a Twitch channel).
I’ve only watched a few of his videos, but Agadmator’s entire channel is dedicated to reviews of master games. He includes historical context for each game and his videos seem very popular (even among very casual chess players).
Toby Litt has a similar post from 2017: Watching Chess