I am B level player trying to get back A or hopefully better.
I was told to try lessons. Which I did a little.
But what DVD do you recommend?
I heard mixed opinion of the Roman series.
I thought I saw something from Raymond Keene. Who is a very good writer.
To start try Yasser Seiravan’s DVD (Video chess mentor). It is very good value for money, almost 4 hours of material, presented by native English speaker (I found that foreign accent can be a distraction for students that are native speakers).
Roman’s DVDs are pretty good, but buy them wisely, as there are a lot of them and $19.95 per DVD is a bit too high (IMHO) for quantaty and quality of the material. $9.95 sounds like what a bargain price should be.
Kasparov’s DVDs on openings is good buy. I mean the “guy” really knows what he is talking about, used to be the best theoretician in the world and his English is good.
Invest some $$$ in Fritz 11 or/and Rybka 3, for the reason that at this point your competion is likely to train with those Engines. The other benifit is that Chessbase version comes with 1-year free access to playchess.com. Interface has been criticized (and for good reason) by some people here, but look at it as free (at least for year) on-line access to best European players.
Finally, if you can afford it, consider private lessons with someone who can teach (choose wisely!!!) and who is at least 400 points higher rated than you are.
Good luck!
I like Roman’s DVDs for their entertainment value; and I think a diligent person will learn a lot. Roman does indeed teach you some valuable concepts. Pal Benko’s DVD on Bobby is well worth it, too. Susan Polgar’s DVDs are very good and worth getting.
Keene? His books on Petrosian and Nimzowitsch are worth having; but I’d stay away from any other enterprise.
thanks very interesting
If you’re interested in some of Roman’s old VHS’s for cheap, send me a PM, i have some laying around.
Unfortunately many of the good old videos were never converted to DVD from VHS. I enjoyed watching Edmar Mednis, Patrick Wolfe, Danny Kopec and Danny King on VHS tape. I never cared for Roman’s tapes as the one’s I saw were of him just sitting at a board and moving the pieces and talking. I also never enjoyed Kasparov’s 5 tape series as it seemed just a rehash of a bunch of variations and done very quickly. Of the ones I mentioned, I believe they are all very good teachers/writers of the game. The best players are usually not the best coaches/instructors.