[lumb63]

Does anyone have tips on how to watch chess? I got pretty into chess during lockdown. I read several books on the subject, was playing a few hours each day. I had friends who got into it as well, and they would watch the tournaments and high profile matches, but I couldn't enjoy them. I didn't feel like I understood the game enough, and the commentary sometimes went over my head/went by too quickly. Anyone been in the same situation?

[binarymax]

The thing about watching chess that’s different from other games, is that it’s not obvious to inexperienced players when important things happen and why.

The only way is to increase your skill level. I played for years before I could appreciate a live game played at the IM or GM level.

At tournaments there’s typically a watch room with a board and a proctor that tries different lines and variations on the position. If you didn’t understand something then playing out the line would help understand the motivation.

Not sure if there’s a good proxy for that now, since honestly I haven’t played much since the advent of chess AI started offering far better analysis than a kibbitz room. But maybe there’s some software that can help with the explanation now.

But practicing is the only way to understand it. So if youre interested, keep at it!

[xapata]

I think many games have important events that aren't obvious to inexperienced players/spectators. In football/soccer, for example, off-the-ball movement is very important, but usually ignored by inexperienced players.

[binarymax]

Yes, but the subtleties in games other than chess or go typically don’t impact the game hours later.

For example, understanding why the placement of a piece on move 12 can have serious repercussions on move 42 doesn’t really translate to other games.

[xapata]

How about tactical choices like which players to put in which positions, who to guard whom or which zone, etc.? These choices are often made before the game and may only have effects towards the end, when the speed difference between two players becomes larger due to tired legs.

[bionsystem]

Alright since everybody gives his favorite streamer / youtuber, I'll share mine : GM Ben Finegold. If you can support the dad jokes, he doesn't bore you with theory and often goes quickly to parts of the game where there is something to learn, whether you are casual or club-level. He has decades of teaching and coaching and has good pedagogy as a result.

Particularly the candidates games (qualifier of this wcc match) are 10-20min long. He also uploads entire courses on his channel that he gives on stream or that he gave live in his current or previous club.

[polytely]

I really liked Hikaru's recaps of the games [1] this tournament, prefer those to watching live because it feels for me like to actually enjoy live classical chess you need to pay full attention and the games are way too long for that, if I only pay a tiny bit attention I don't really get much out of it.

1: https://youtu.be/lNzNgFy_P1g

[treme]

Highly recommend Chessnetwork vids

https://youtube.com/@ChessNetwork

[squirrel]

GM Daniel King explains games in an accessible and very insightful way on the PowerPlay Chess youtube channel.

[l3mure]

absolutely my favorite commentator both for his game analysis and his depth of experience from his own chess career

[fahadkhan]

I really enjoyed Giri and Caruana's commentary. I can't really understand chess at the WC level but listening to them explain it along side IMs shows that even IMs are in similar a position. Sure they understand more than I do but they miss most of the deeper or sutbler ideas.

[xtreme]

Agadmator on YouTube makes excellent post-game analysis videos: https://www.youtube.com/@agadmator/videos

[saganus]

You can watch chess streamers like Gothan Chess and similar. It makes games more aproachable to some degree.