GM Ben Finegold's Message to Beginner Chess Players

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[reedclippings]

I'm a teacher. This is not a chess video. This is a teaching video. That is a compliment.

Also, easy to get the idea this guy isn't humble and understanding with all the jokes. Clearly he is.

[bobdylan]

I love that Ben had this compassionate and nurturing side, you don't see it very often 😜 also nice to see content that's more educational and similar to the lectures

[scorpion.]

17:09 "Everything's difficult when you don't know it" - That quote got stuck in my head. It's for stuff like this that I not only admire Ben for his chess content, but I also admire him for the person he is.

[RunFreeRyan]

I enjoyed this video not because it explains what to teach beginners, but that Ben truly cares about the game of chess and helping those get better no matter how "bad" the player may be. No air of superiority. I loved watching this and love watching you.

[gunnarandersen]

Wow, I think this is the best piece of advice ever given to chess coaches. Great stuff.

[zelly]

I love these Ben stories- just gives me the motivation to keep going regardless of losing so many games in a row. Need to love the process!

[CaslavNorisavljevic]

I'm embarrassed to say that i was guilty of too quickly showing double attacks and discovered attacks to kid players

[AdamGaffney]

This is genuinely one of the best videos out there in chess because it perfectly explains why it's hard to introduce new people to chess. Even if you're 900, you know how the pieces move you're just making 1 move blunders. I tried teaching my friend who loves chequers, who had never even really seen a chessboard before and it's a whole different experience. She really struggled to get her head around that initial "pawns can move twice sometimes, and capture diagonally". And I also struggled to find the best way to teach it because I was looking at it like "how do you not even see that the pawn can move forward". It takes a special understanding of the game to get into the mind of that level of beginner.

[antonmladenov]

Thank you Ben, this gave me a lot to think about when it comes to teaching my little sister chess, a lot of great puzzle examples and I definitely have been showing her too complicated ideas

[paulocarochas]

Dear Mr. Finegold, I’ve been watching your videos for a long time and this video is a gold nugget. The best advice by far I’ve ever seen in the Internet. I’ve been a fan of chess for many years and have been trying to study it hard with little achievements. The way you put it made me rethink and realize that my problem might be that I study too much and play too less. I’m always scared of loosing and that has prevented me to play, specially online. Again, thank you so much for this video.

[acsu]

I remember growing up my dad didn't know what to do with me so after Bobby Fischer teaches chess and me just playing at the school club, he just set me on Lazlo Polgar's Chess book...and there's like hundreds of mate in one puzzles in that book. Kept me busy for a long while!

[Zombie_Chess]

I'm not a beginner, but as someone who used to be a beginner, and was one for longer than I knew I was I really love the way you explain stuff in your videos. You're probably one of the nicest people in ChessTube.

[pixification]

“We live in a world where everyone is mean including me!” Best Ben quote ever. Truth hurts and so forth.

[Sputnikcosmonot]

this guy understands not only the game itself, but the teaching of it. It's truly refreshing to see, and Mr Finegold's humilty is an inspiration.

[rickmagee]

Your amazing Ben. First off you teach with humor and sarcasm. Love it. Thanks for teaching me chess. I have played 700 games and am stuck around rating 600. This video helpful

[JackMott]

It is really a rare and valuable thing to have a GM level player who struggled for a long time when he was young. It makes him uniquely able to understand what beginners are actually experiencing. Start slow and very basic, learn to move the pieces, then learn to not hang one every game. And that alone can be a long term, years long project, especially if you are young or have limited time.

[arnislapsa]

My approach is to enjoy chess. I don't even strive to improve. Scratching that intellectual itch every now and then, when I feel like it. Eventually and inevitably something mind blowing and exciting comes up (position, tactic, particular game) that makes it all worth. And I have become slightly sharper.

[ddillon]

This is great--the tone is really kind and obviously informed by lots of experience. I will add that one of the central lessons here--that students know less than you might expect--is generally true. I teach and lecture a bit and have found that students will always nod, say "Oh right, sure", and so on, and then when I ask them about the material in a slightly different way it's obvious they have no idea what I was teaching. Learning anything well takes a lot of time and (ideally) hands-on experience.

[isaakvandaalen]

This really rings true to me. I tried teaching my nan some chess the other day but it quickly became clear that she just didn't share the same understanding of the game I did. I was trying to explain how the Knight can fork pieces and she admitted that she didn't see why it worked, even with the position on the board right in front of her.
I realized I was starting waaay too high level and probably should've just stuck with how the pieces moved.
At the same time, I remember a time when I was like my nan, and it's kinda crazy to think how much stronger I am now than then - I hardly feel like I'm a good player, but I can see I'm much stronger than I once was.

[OldManSilencer]

As someone that teaches kids chess in a school setting I really appreciate this. I do tend to start off with how do the pieces move and a few things like this but I tend to want to get into stuff like back rank mate, ladder mate a little bit too early probably.