The tutor discusses a discovery facilitated by the internet.

I rediscovered chess a couple of years back, possibly because my youngest began playing it.  It was timely anyway, because I needed to rejuvenate my mental flexibility.

Well, on my Linux laptop I started playing GNU Chess – and losing.  After a couple of weeks I realized that chess is much more complex than I remembered.  I needed help to understand.

I decided to search the internet about chess, hoping to find some helpful articles.  I discovered much more:  YouTube is rich with chess videos of masters’ games, commentated by enthusiastic hosts.  You could probably spend five years just watching the coverage that’s on there now, but of course it’s likely increasing at a geometric rate.

Watching those videos, I awakened.  Finally I began to understand why the computer was always winning.  Sean Godley of Killegar Chess, with his step-by-step commentary of Bobby Fischer, Judith Polgar, Kramnik, Kasparov, Nimzovitsch, and many others, explains what I should be doing. Eventually he pointed me to Mato Jelic, who has a less conversational style. You need more time to watch a Killegar video, but I love his (Irish, I suspect) way of going into the background of the situation. At breakfast, I play Mato Jelic videos for my son, since they’re shorter.

For me, the videos are half about chess, but half about entertainment. I love having Sean in my kitchen while I’m doing the dishes or having a coffee. Mato, similarly, is great company. It would be worth taking up chess just to have them in your world.

I’ll be talking more about this. In the meantime, enjoy!

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.