game of the day / week

in the last post i said that the best players are not always the best teachers. however, there are many IMs and GMs that are doing excellent teaching and i have benefitted from some of this. the internet chess club (www.chessclub.com) is a huge community of players who play, watch and learn chess online. often they produce videos such as 'game of the week' and 'game of the day' where a grandmaster will focus on a GM vs GM game that caught their attention.
i would recommend these videos. i like to watch one on a sunday morning with my first cup of coffee. it's very useful to see how strong chess players plan their game on strategic and tactical levels. i'm not sure that these videos actually improve my own play. maybe on a subliminal level it helps me to have a clearer thought process.

one of my favourite things on the internet chess club is their live relays of top GM tournaments. players of all levels discuss the games and sometimes there is radio commentary via chess.fm

although it is a commercial service it has advantages over free servers like FICS (www.freechess.org) in terms of it's resources for chess improvement. having said that i love the free ethic of FICS. i play there under the handle "MrMoo" and i play on the internet chess club under the handle "muzio". if you see me there, say hi!

you tube as a tool

i hadn't really thought of using youtube (www.youtube.com) as a resource for improving chess, but now that elite tournaments are video-reported (e.g. www.chessvibes.com) i would start to visit youtube to catch up on the global chess scene. as often happens on the internet, i got distracted and started looking at all sorts of chess videos that i hadn't intended to look at. this was fortunate as i began to find some nice videos. i like those of Matthew Pullin, a US player with a national elo of around 2000. his youtube channel is at www.youtube.com/user/GreenCastleBlock. i think it's useful to get instruction from a player who is not too far above you in playing strength (the best players are not necessarily the best teachers - though see next post!).

Have you found youtube a useful resource for chess improvement? which channels or video clips have helped you? let us know!